I read the fixed mindset article and the Neil Gaiman's Advice on the Creative Life article as well.
I think for the fixed mindset article it makes a lot of sense when applied to everyone, kids, doctors and in the workplace. The issue with a fixed mindset is that it does not allow for growth in a person. I think I learned from an early age to motivate myself and work hard for what I want. I think it is hard to say that experience is shared with everyone. I know a lot of people in gifted programs suffered because teachers constantly were telling them they were smart and ahead of the curve and it resulted in stinted education and mental illness, myself included. For kids in gifted programs especially, the fear of failure and increased anxiety is evident due to the immense amount of pressure the kids were being put under for being "better" or "special" whereas the other kids were just taught normally and encouraged to learn more. I think it is interesting how this mindset has backfired in a lot of people's experience it has resulted in some deep seated issues later on in life.
Neil Gaiman's advice article was very interesting, his advice, "Make good art." When all goes wrong that is all you can do. He discusses that good art comes from trying and failing and that if you are failing that means you are doing something to get you to the right place. He even went so far to say, " if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world." I think this is an extremely important way to think about life, and it directly correlates to the article I talked about above. Being able to fail and see where you go wrong builds and develops character, if you have no struggles you have no content. I you haven't had it bad, you don't know what good is. It is important to challenge yourself in life and not become complicit and secure. Make good art.
I think getting constructive feedback is more important than just being mean or being nice, I think it is important to encourage but be honest because failure builds character and only succeeding can break a person down. I do think that there is a limit sometimes though because if people continue to fail and get told they are doing things wrong, they will stop trying and think they cannot succeed. This connects to a post I wrote last week, there needs to be a "yet" in the criticism. You're not there yet, you are almost there. It gives people hope.
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