Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training.
Carol S. DweckRead
More and more research is suggesting that, far from being simply encoded in the genes, much of personality is a flexible and dynamic thing that changes over the life span and is shaped by experience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Personality is not fixed but can change and develop over time based on experiences.
Carol S. Dweck suggests that personality is not solely determined by genetics but is instead a malleable quality influenced by life experiences. This perspective emphasizes the importance of adaptability and personal growth throughout one's lifetime, challenging the notion that our traits are static and unchangeable.
Themes
PersonalityChangeGrowthExperienceDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
In a TED talk about personal development, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of changing our mindset.
More from Carol S. Dweck
All quotes →Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone. They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'
Carol S. DweckRead
In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you're not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn't need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.
Carol S. DweckRead
Our message to parents is to focus on the process the child engages in, such as trying hard or focusing on the task - what specific things they're doing rather than, 'You're so smart. You're so good at this.' Although it's never too late to change, what you do early matters.
Carol S. DweckRead
Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.
Carol S. DweckRead
I loved everything. I loved sciences and I loved humanities. But ultimately, I felt that in the humanities, you know, you're writing about things that already exist. But in the sciences, you're discovering things that no one has known before. Ultimately I chose psychology because it seemed to combine science with things that I liked to think about.
Carol S. DweckRead
Similar quotes
While people argue with one another about the specifics of Freud's work and blame him for the prejudices of his time, they overlook the fundamental truth of his writing, his grand humility: that we frequently do not know our own motivations in life and are prisoners to what we cannot understand. We can recognize only a small fragment of our own, and an even smaller fragment of anyone else's, impetus.
Andrew SolomonRead
One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go.
Sigmund FreudRead
Psychopaths are social predators, and like all predators, they are looking for feeding grounds. Wherever you get power, prestige and money, you will find them.
Robert D. HareRead
Emotions are continually affecting our thought processes and decisions, below the level of our awareness. And the most common emotion of them all is the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
Robert GreeneRead
If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
Edward BernaysRead
Many psychoanalysts refused to let me speak at their meetings. They were exceptionally vigorous because I had previously been an analyst and they were very angry at my flying the coop.
Albert EllisRead