Growth Mindset
Many thanks to wgm Natalia Pogonina for pointing this out on her twitter. We chessplayers might find this exciting new theory by renown researcher Carol Dweck of ‘growth mindset’ as a useful way of explaining why and how some chessplayers develop and become so much stronger than others, despite having the same relative backgrounds, same initial talent , same early setbacks and so on.
It has to do with attitude, mostly, and how one faces the natural obstacles and setbacks that accompany the learning process. If you think you can do it, if you think you can improve your skills and develop talent for something (anything), then you will face the obstacles and challenges that you encounter along the way with a more flexible and productive approach. But if you think that you only have a certain amount of intelligence , talent and capacity (fixed mindset), then each obstacle and challenge you encounter is simply used to reinforce your idea of your ‘fixed’ limitations. Very interesting and groundmaking material!
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