Definite or Limitless: Changing Our Mindsets
How much control do we have over whether we succeed or fail? How do natural abilities and effort play into this? Some may believe that their abilities are determined by natural talents that they are born with. They believe that effort and hard work for self-improvement should not be necessary if they have what it takes to succeed. On the other hand, I believe that with the right mindset, people can match or surpass the abilities of those who simply rely on natural talents without growing. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck argues that people should adopt a growth mindset rather than a fixed one. Instead of relying on natural abilities and letting them define the limits of our potential, we should work hard in order to take on new challenges and grow. I agree with Dweck’s argument because a growth mindset allowed me to learn programming, something I originally did not think I had the abilities to do.
In Gifted Children, Ellen Winner describes prodigies who had “obsessive interests” and became very successful. Many people may think of prodigies as people who are born very talented. However, Dweck argues, “Most often people believe that the ‘gift’ is the ability itself. Yet what feeds it is that constant, endless curiosity and challenge seeking.” If what Dweck says is true, then a person’s mindset and dedication to their interests matters more than their natural talents. Thomas Edison is one such person who became very successful through dedication to his interests. Dweck explains, “Long after other young men had taken up their roles in society, he rode the rails from city to city learning everything he could about telegraphy, and working his way up the ladder of telegraphers through nonstop self-education and invention.” Edison was not born with the abilities he needed in order to invent the light bulb; he worked to educate and apply himself in order to improve and eventually get there.
Although natural gifts can give someone a head start, others who were not born with such talents can catch up through training and hard work. Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, saw great improvement in her students’ drawing abilities after just five days. She argues that those who view artistic ability as a magical talent don’t understand the seeing skills that are required for drawing. Dweck explains, “Drawing requires us to learn each component skill and then combine them into one process. Some people simply pick up these skills in the natural course of their lives, whereas others have to work to learn them and put them together.” Drawing may be easier for some than for others, but with the right training nearly anyone can draw well. One such person who lacked natural artistic talent but learned through hard work and training was Jackson Pollock: “Because he was so gung-ho, he got others to take him seriously and mentor him until he had mastered all there was to master and began to produce startlingly original works” (Dweck). Because of his dedication and hard work, Pollock became one of the greatest American painters of the twentieth century.
Although some may argue that relying on natural ability is a viable alternative to working to learn and improve, this fixed-mindset approach is doomed to fail. Dweck summarizes the fixed-mindset approach of expecting natural talent to be the ticket to success: “…in the fixed mindset it’s not enough just to succeed. It’s not enough just to look smart and talented. You have to be pretty much flawless. And you have to be flawless right away.” The idea behind this fixed-mindset thinking is that if you are born with talent, then you should be able to tap into that talent right away and never fail. This thinking is not only unrealistic, but it also prevents people from growing. Dweck monitored students as they took a difficult chemistry course necessary for entering pre-med. Students with a fixed mindset who relied on their existing abilities failed to improve throughout the course and ended up losing interest in chemistry. In contrast, those with a growth mindset put in more effort when the class got challenging and got better grades overall. Since the students with a fixed mindset expected their natural abilities to earn them high grades, they didn’t think there was anything they could do to improve when they started preforming poorly.
One of my first experiences with programming was when I tried to make an Arduino flash LEDs in specific patterns. I followed instructions in a book that explained how to write each program. I was able to follow the instructions, but I didn’t really understand how the program worked and I couldn’t remember the syntax I had to use. I thought programming just wasn’t for me, but at the same time I was still curious about what more was possible. When choosing classes for my sophomore year of high school, I decided to take AP Computer Science to give programming another chance. The summer before that school year, I watched online lectures on programming in Java in order to prepare. I learned a bit more, but I was still struggling to figure out how to apply what I learned. I didn’t see how to connect the concepts I was learning to create something useful. However, when I started the AP Computer Science class, it finally made sense to me. We did a warmup at the beginning of class each day, where we applied what we had learned earlier to solve a problem. In this class, it finally made sense to me how to apply and combine concepts. The problem I encountered before taking the class wasn’t that I didn’t have the natural ability I needed to succeed in computer science, it was that I hadn’t been practicing what I learned. After high school, I got an internship as a software engineer. Most of the programming I had to do was in C++, a programming language I had little experience with. However, I made sure to practice a lot, so I did not have much trouble learning new syntax and concepts as I had previously. Despite originally thinking I couldn’t succeed in computer science, I ended up deciding to minor in computer science in college.
After my initial struggles trying to learn to program, I could have simply lost interest in computer science and given up, just as the pre-med students with a fixed mindset lost interest in chemistry because of their struggles in their class. Instead, I tried taking AP Computer Science and found that I actually could learn to program. Before the class, I had read instructions and watched lecture videos expecting to be able to learn that way. I didn’t realize until I took AP Computer Science that programming requires a lot of practice applying concepts in order to learn them well. Similarly, Betty Edwards argued that some people saw drawing as a magical talent because they didn’t understand the required seeing skills and how to combine them. Once her students learned those skills, their drawing vastly improved. Rather than expecting themselves to be able to pick up these skills naturally, as might be expected of someone with natural talent, Edwards’ students had to work for it. I had expected myself to be able to pick up programming skills simply by watching lecture videos. Instead I had to practice a lot, just like Edwards’ students. In both cases, we were able to succeed because we were taught to have a growth mindset instead of expecting ourselves to already be competent.
Having a growth mindset rather than a fixed one can completely change what a person can achieve: they can take on challenges they may not have believed they could face and grow past what they thought they were capable of. Dweck has shown that success comes from dedication and hard work, natural talent is not required for success, and relying on natural abilities is not enough to be successful. Edison could not have succeeded if he had not continually improved himself. Edwards’ students might have believed drawing required natural talent if they had not been taught to improve through effort and training. The students who lost interest in chemistry may have done well in the class if they had risen to the challenge by trying to improve. If I had believed that natural talent was required for success, I might have given up on trying to learn programming rather than taking on the challenge of taking AP Computer Science. I had initially failed to learn when relying solely on lectures or instructions. However, when I realized that I needed to practice each concept a lot in order to really learn them, I finally started to succeed. It did not matter that I did not have the natural abilities to grasp concepts just by watching videos; by putting in more effort and taking on challenges, I was able to learn and improve. I believe it is crucial to switch to a growth mindset in order to continually improve and to avoid limiting ourselves by turning down challenges.
