The secret to raising smart kids (and overcoming challenges)

I just came across a fascinating article in Scientific American on how one’s attitude towards intelligence dramatically impacts your performance in school and life. If you believe you have a set level of intelligence, you will shy away from tough problems and react negatively to failure. If you believe you can build your intelligence by working at it, you will look forward to solving difficult problems and setbacks will only be learning experiences.

As such parents should always reward their kids for their success by praising their hard work rather than intelligence. That seemingly small difference in the way kids are rewarded had a huge impact in the way they approached life!

  • I forget which of the books about Richard Feynman talks about him taking an IQ test early in his life. His sister also took it. Feynman scored an very unimpressive 125-ish. His sister scored higher. Hell I scored higher. But he was the talent. He won the nobel prize ( for whatever its worth….Not much any more after giving to Arafat and Al Gore for their respective scams ) He was the source of my holy books – The Holy Testaments of Feynman Lectures on Physics Volume I,II and III. Thus its easy to see its not what OTHERS believe about you. Its what YOU believe about you. You should always live your life in Anti-California mode. That is to say live to impress yourself….not others. You are more likely to end up happy regardless of circumstance.