Simpson has a “growth mindset,” which Dweck defines as believing that your abilities are largely the product of effort—that you can “grow” to the extent that you are willing to work hard and learn.2 Some people might think that’s so obviously true it scarcely needs to be said. But as Dweck’s research has shown, the growth mindset is far from universal. Many people have what she calls a “fixed mindset”—the belief that we are who we are, and abilities can only be revealed, not created and developed.
