The Power of Persistence and Stubbornness: Are Growth and Fixed Mindsets that different?
My erhu teacher said to me, “As long as you are willing to learn, I will make you into something.”
I was eager and dedicated to learn this traditional Chinese instrument because I chose the instrument. I was the one who fell in love with the sound of the erhu; so I practiced every day. As promised, I have reached a point where I perform all over the Bay Area and now I’m the concertmaster of our orchestra.
In Mindset, author Carol Dweck describes two general types of attitudes: either a fixed mindset where your skills need to be proven, or a growth mindset where you abilities that can be developed through learning and change. She argues that a growth mindset is better in almost all circumstances in life and that it is possible for everyone to learn the growth mindset. Through my own experience, I agree that mental mindsets can easily be changed, especially at a young age. As we grow older, it is natural to deviate towards a more fixed mindset, but this can also be reversed as soon as the individual recognizes their mindset. The one thing I disagree with Dweck about is that I believe that a fixed mindset is good for personal growth in some situations.
I developed the growth mindset because I was bullied as a child. I went to Chinese school to learn Mandarin and everyone there was really nerdy and smart. As you can imagine, someone who liked to play 4 square, enjoyed comic books, and loved sports didn’t wouldn’t exactly fit in this setting. As a result, I was bullied for not being to do multiplication problems fast enough, or doing long division. So I did the only thing I could, I practiced my math skills. I eventually earned the respect of most of the kids there, and I continue to apply this attitude towards almost everything I do.
Just like a teacher Dweck quotes, we “‘can’t just sit in a seat and grow smart.’”
Contrary to popular belief, artistic ability is gained more from practice than natural talent. In Dweck’s book, she mentions that Betty Edwards says art is the ability of hand eye coordination to visualize space and lines.
“They are not drawing skills at all, but seeing skills.”
I used to draw a lot as a kid, all throughout elementary school, and I was really good. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was drawing posters of characters from the then-recent Avengers film, laminating it, and then selling them. Over time, in middle school and high school, as I had less and less free time, I stopped drawing and my skills have significantly worsened. My friend, Wesley, who at the time I can say drew things a little more out of proportion than I did, kept drawing, and he’s really good now.
Because I started learning erhu at a summer camp that exposed kids to all types of traditional Chinese instruments, I go back every summer to volunteer teaching some classes. As a teaching assistant, I can tell which students are there because they want to learn and which students are there because their parents dragged them into the class. I watch how my teacher handles the students who don’t want to be there, and my teacher doesn’t bother with them at all. This isn’t the best, but it does make sense. I believe that, in music, if you don’t want to learn it, there is no way to teach it. I wouldn’t exactly call this a fixed mindset, however, because it relies more on personal interest before growth.
Moreso, scientific studies show that art is something that is practiced and people who are good at drawing, draw more, which means they practice more. Sure, there might be some kids who are born with more hand eye coordination than others, which makes them inclined to draw more, because they were “naturally (slightly) better.” Those who didn’t draw as much didn’t develop those visual spatial skills, which perpetuates the idea that art is something people are born with. However, if anyone chooses to draw more, they will most definitely get better, and that is the case with Jackson Pollock.
Training montages from boxing movies get me pumped. When I watch them, I sometimes even jump out of my seat and shadow box along with the actors. But I remember that in during those times of working hard, it’s not so nice: it’s hot, you’re fatigued and out of breath. We all wish we could have work be like a montage, add some nice music, and then cut to the final part. This is where our mindsets have to change.
If having a growth mindset means having the mindset for change, we have to learn to love the pain, to be obsessed with working harder than those around you. Notice how I didn’t say it’s about working harder, because I can have that mindset for a few minutes, get tired and then sit back down on my couch. What I mean is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to love the process. Only then will you deviate to doing more work and naturally work harder. In the end, when you have the greatest feeling of accomplishment, you only vaguely remember the pain, the number of hours I spent practicing instead of hanging out with friends, or doing something else. You remember brief moments of working hard, but you will never forget the feeling accomplished in the end. Like Dweck argues, success is a result of people’s determination and love for challenges.
Yet, Dweck fails to fully address the significance of socioeconomic status and natural ability. Dweck concedes that individuals of higher socio-economic status have reached an economic standing with access to unique resources and opportunities, which also allows them to take more risks. As we know, having the growth mindset and taking more risks allows for people to succeed more, and having easier access to education and networking, which also leads to more opportunities and a higher chance of succeeding. In America especially, a phenomenon known as “white privilege” points out that average caucasian males have higher socioeconomic status than the average colored person, leading to an ever increasing racial gap.
It is obvious that a fixed mindset is an undesirable trait as it hinders people from learning and it causes people to not try new things. However, just as being “stubborn” has both beneficial and counterproductive aspects, a fixed mindset may not be as bad as Dweck perceives. It’s not that some individuals are just not meant for something, but rather no matter how hard they try, they will be overshadowed by someone who works just as hard and is much more talented.
I started playing basketball in high school. Despite being 5’7, my natural athletic ability allowed me to make the freshman team. I fell in love with the game. I practice a lot over the summer, hoping to get to the starting 5 line-up on the JV team. However, my luck ran out when a wave of tall, lanky, and quick freshmen joined the team and took the starting spots. Despite working hard during practice, I spent my JV year on the bench.
Over time, these freshmen became better and better; and while I was improving, I couldn’t surpass them. As a result, I decided to allocate more energy to my other hobbies in music and science. I even conducted my own research on Electric Double Layer Capacitors because I didn’t have to spend 3 hours a day after school in practice. I haven’t stopped playing basketball, I chose not to try out for the Varsity team not because I feared I wouldn’t make it, but because I knew my strengths and weaknesses and decided it was more worth my time to improve on things I was better equipped with. This reinforces the idea that people who succeed at something always have some sort of natural ability as well as the obsession to get better.
Ultimately, growth is about finding one’s strengths and applying effort and hard work into your strengths to develop them. Like writer and environmental activist Edward Abbey said, growth for the sake of growth is the mindset of a cancer cell. Sure, I could’ve worked on basketball for 7 hours a day to reach my full potential, which I agree with Dweck on, but I’ll never be as good as someone who is more talented and practices just as much. The fixed mindset allows people to submit to their flaws so that they should devote more time towards a different task or skill that they can improve upon. Michael Jordan is always praised for his growth mindset, but without his fixed mindset towards baseball, we might have seen Michael Jordan waste his days in minor league baseball instead of rejoining the Chicago Bulls and leading them to 3 more NBA championships.
The growth mindset is critical to learning from failures and taking risks, which we all hear are characteristics of successful people. However, Dweck’s simplicity and surface-level elaboration of the fixed mindset comes off as bias and even unreliable. There are times when the fixed mindset can help you find your niche. After that, adjusting to a growth mindset can only be helpful to continually learn and develop.
