Learning and Emotion

Interest is an emotion. I don't think people tend to think of it as such. We say "such and such" is interesting, as if interest is something inherent to that thing. But some people find that thing interesting, others find it boring, some find it infuriating, others saddening. Whatever the case, that thing is sparking an emotion, and our emotions move us. Sadness moves you to change your environment, anger moves you to attack, boredom moves you to find an alternate activity, and interest moves you to explore.

Flow

Flow comes from the research of the Hungarian turned American pyschologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He did a study in the eighties (I think) in which he gave some people a pager that would go off at random intervals, prompting them to write down what they were doing and feeling at the time.

The findings are intuitive, but instructive to see in words: when the challenge of the activity is low you may feel apathetic, bored, or relaxed depending upon your skill level. When the challenge is moderate you probably feel either worried or in-control depending upon your skill level. When the challenge is high, emotions vary from anxious, aroused, or "flow". Learning tends to occur in the state of arousal. Meaning tends to occur in the state of flow.

Mindset

Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, has done extensive research into how a person's mindset impacts their ability to reach their full potential. Here are some of my thoughts (for free).

To paint the issue as black and white, there are fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. If you hold a fixed mindset, you believe that abilities, talents, and/or intelligence are innate. If you hold a growth mindset, you believe that abilities, talents, and/or intelligence are cultivated through effort. Putting it in those terms, it makes it seem obvious that a growth mindset is preferable, since it lacks the stench of prejudice and places value in hard work rather than good genes. By the way, you can hold different mindsets for different areas (for example: intelligence is fixed but athleticism is learned).

So why is it that the fixed mindset is so alluring?