A while ago I posted a review about the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. The message of the book, I think, is critically important, but the book wasted my time with too many anecdotes and testimonials which are a taboo in science writing. The good parts remain where Dweck wrote about her own and others’ research and application of it in this area. If it had stuck with that I’d have given it 4 stars instead of 2.

In the review I suggested “The Inverse Power of Praise” chapter of NurtureShock (Bronson and Merryman) as an alternative. Well, The Secret to Raising Smart Kids written by Dweck is another good alternative.

Here Carol condenses Mindset to something any parent or teacher can read. It focuses on the research and how to put it into practice.

Not long ago, I noticed someone praised me for self-correcting. Specifically he like I noticed where I was doing it wrong and changed to resume the correct form. So I got to explain Mindset and praise his process of observation and reward. It got more than a little meta.