This seems right to me, and at least the ‘motte’ version of growth mindset accepts that innate ability may set pretty hard envelopes on what you can accomplish regardless of how energetic/agently you pursue self improvement (and this can apply across a range of ability—although it seems cruel and ludicrous to suggest someone with severe cognitive impairment can master calculus, it also seems misguided to suggest someone in middle age can become a sports star if they really go for it). As you say, taking growth mindset ‘too far’ has a dark side in that we might start thinking that people fail or struggle because they aren’t trying hard enough (generally a fault which we morally criticise) rather than lacking the ability (generally ‘blameless’).
But I’d venture a broader criticism about growth mindset which apply both to the ‘motte’ form sketched above, but also its sincere use in the rationalist community—that we shouldn’t only ‘not take it too far’, but not take it anywhere at all:
1) Growth mindset as expounded by Dweck and colleagues has not weathered replication well. The most recent systematic reviews give extremely minor effects on achievement (r=0.1) and even smaller intervention effects (d=0.08). The authors of the meta-analysis are about as sceptical as I am about whether these residual effects are real, but even if real they are extremely minor compared to more traity things (you can get much better prediction of academic achievement by genotyping than assessing growth mindest).
2) There’s a natural story of reverse causation, which also applies to the closely related ‘internal versus external locus of control’. If you’re smart and living in propitious circumstances, you may be right in thinking “I can get good at this if I really try” for many different things. If you lack this good fortune, your belief “Even if I try really hard at something, for most somethings I probably won’t develop mastery (or even competence)” might be a case of accurate and laudable insight.
3a) I can think of more than a few occasions in my life where the latter was better for me. One was when I was contemplating what subjects to keep before I went to university, and I had discussions with various teachers along the lines of, “You’re good but not exceptional at this, maybe think about something else?” Or (in medical school) a conversation along the lines of, “You have dysgraphia, which probably makes you somewhat weaker at fine manual dexterity. Opthalmology requires really good fine manual dexterity, so maybe this isn’t the specialty for you.”
3b) It also seemed to serve me better when I couldn’t circumvent my limitations by picking a different line of work. I focused especially hard on training myself to perform practical procedures because I realised I was working from a disadvantage, and so had to try harder to be satisfactory (I maintained no illusions of becoming great at it).
3c) My impression is that conversations (or thinking) like this tend to be more emotionally difficult than more aspirational, “Don’t worry, you can do it!” exhortations. So I’d guess they are probably under-supplied from their optimum.
In essence, there’s an underlying empirical topic which ‘growth mindset’ relies upon: that a lot of whether one accomplishes something or not depends on mindset or attitude. The answer to that, as best as I can tell, is this isn’t really true: we live in a world which has the uncomfortable features where which tickets one draws from the genetic lottery, birthplace lottery, and early environment lottery (etc) determine the broad strokes of one’s life far more than particular efforts of will and mindset (and growth mindset in particular, which seems to have slim-to-no effect). Many things which are possible for someone are not possible for us, no matter what we do, and no matter how hard we try.
Then there’s a prudential question of (even if it isn’t true) whether it would be better to act and believe as-a growth mindset would suggest. Again, it doesn’t seem so: the evidence for mindset interventions working is slim to none, and insofar as one can survey anecdata my impression is ‘anti-growth mindset’ advice is undersupplied relative to its importance.
It is inarguable one should often persevere in work to improve oneself, to not give up ‘too soon’, and to encourage others when trying to do the same. Yet there are times when it is better to recognise the limits of one’s abilities, that one should cut their losses, and to shoulder the burden of (if one believes it to be the case) telling someone they should quit something because they ‘don’t have what it takes’. The right judgement in these cases is a matter for practical wisdom. Insofar as growth mindset as it is preached (but also as it is practised) biases us more to the former sort of behaviour, it should be resisted.
This seems right to me, and at least the ‘motte’ version of growth mindset accepts that innate ability may set pretty hard envelopes on what you can accomplish regardless of how energetic/agently you pursue self improvement (and this can apply across a range of ability—although it seems cruel and ludicrous to suggest someone with severe cognitive impairment can master calculus, it also seems misguided to suggest someone in middle age can become a sports star if they really go for it). As you say, taking growth mindset ‘too far’ has a dark side in that we might start thinking that people fail or struggle because they aren’t trying hard enough (generally a fault which we morally criticise) rather than lacking the ability (generally ‘blameless’).
But I’d venture a broader criticism about growth mindset which apply both to the ‘motte’ form sketched above, but also its sincere use in the rationalist community—that we shouldn’t only ‘not take it too far’, but not take it anywhere at all:
1) Growth mindset as expounded by Dweck and colleagues has not weathered replication well. The most recent systematic reviews give extremely minor effects on achievement (r=0.1) and even smaller intervention effects (d=0.08). The authors of the meta-analysis are about as sceptical as I am about whether these residual effects are real, but even if real they are extremely minor compared to more traity things (you can get much better prediction of academic achievement by genotyping than assessing growth mindest).
2) There’s a natural story of reverse causation, which also applies to the closely related ‘internal versus external locus of control’. If you’re smart and living in propitious circumstances, you may be right in thinking “I can get good at this if I really try” for many different things. If you lack this good fortune, your belief “Even if I try really hard at something, for most somethings I probably won’t develop mastery (or even competence)” might be a case of accurate and laudable insight.
3a) I can think of more than a few occasions in my life where the latter was better for me. One was when I was contemplating what subjects to keep before I went to university, and I had discussions with various teachers along the lines of, “You’re good but not exceptional at this, maybe think about something else?” Or (in medical school) a conversation along the lines of, “You have dysgraphia, which probably makes you somewhat weaker at fine manual dexterity. Opthalmology requires really good fine manual dexterity, so maybe this isn’t the specialty for you.”
3b) It also seemed to serve me better when I couldn’t circumvent my limitations by picking a different line of work. I focused especially hard on training myself to perform practical procedures because I realised I was working from a disadvantage, and so had to try harder to be satisfactory (I maintained no illusions of becoming great at it).
3c) My impression is that conversations (or thinking) like this tend to be more emotionally difficult than more aspirational, “Don’t worry, you can do it!” exhortations. So I’d guess they are probably under-supplied from their optimum.
In essence, there’s an underlying empirical topic which ‘growth mindset’ relies upon: that a lot of whether one accomplishes something or not depends on mindset or attitude. The answer to that, as best as I can tell, is this isn’t really true: we live in a world which has the uncomfortable features where which tickets one draws from the genetic lottery, birthplace lottery, and early environment lottery (etc) determine the broad strokes of one’s life far more than particular efforts of will and mindset (and growth mindset in particular, which seems to have slim-to-no effect). Many things which are possible for someone are not possible for us, no matter what we do, and no matter how hard we try.
Then there’s a prudential question of (even if it isn’t true) whether it would be better to act and believe as-a growth mindset would suggest. Again, it doesn’t seem so: the evidence for mindset interventions working is slim to none, and insofar as one can survey anecdata my impression is ‘anti-growth mindset’ advice is undersupplied relative to its importance.
It is inarguable one should often persevere in work to improve oneself, to not give up ‘too soon’, and to encourage others when trying to do the same. Yet there are times when it is better to recognise the limits of one’s abilities, that one should cut their losses, and to shoulder the burden of (if one believes it to be the case) telling someone they should quit something because they ‘don’t have what it takes’. The right judgement in these cases is a matter for practical wisdom. Insofar as growth mindset as it is preached (but also as it is practised) biases us more to the former sort of behaviour, it should be resisted.