The Growth Mindset and How Our World is Destroying It

The storm will pass my dear, yet learn from the lightning. Be honored by its presence. Let it remind you of the level of energy you should emanate, the way it turns night into day, even for a little while, and how people tremble at its fatal beauty (Watercolor. 11-27-2018).

 Time check, it’s less than two months before the PRC board exam for chemical engineers and yes, my darlings, here I am composing this heck of a read instead of studying my brains out or working on necessary paperwork until those days come. Why though?

Because I have a bone to pick with the system.

My experiences as an overachiever made me hungry for the validation that came with high grades, high marks, medals, praise, and the like. I have to admit that at several periods in my life, I indulged in it so much that it became a part of my identity and I was often operating under the fear of what would become of me without it. I have described these experiences in detail in one of my previous articles: my imposter syndrome, my fear of failure, and how I needed to change my way of perceiving things if I am to survive this world without experiencing one neurotic slump after another.

Many of you already have read my background of the time I spent in the dark and I am partly responsible for putting myself in that rock bottom place. There were lessons along the way that I refused to learn, to the point where I would have preferred rage quitting life instead of going through the same cycles of suffering again and again. Time after time I refused to listen to what the universe had to say, and time after time, I had to take the longer road and learn things the harder way.

I consider myself grateful for all the experiences I went through, even the bitter times which I thought I wouldn’t survive but one thing I cannot get off my head was the fact that why things have to be this way when we know that things could be done better.  

Just because something works, does not mean it doesn't need improvement

 If we can say that engineering is built on the premise of making the world a better place by working towards sustainability, improvement in terms of optimizing our systems and making the most of what we have, then we are not using our full human potential in collective growth. If you’ve noticed, our current world does not operate on growth, but rather competition. Now you know where the world’s priorities lie.

I originally observed this at school: only the top markers get to be commended by their achievements, not the kids who had to exert thrice or four times the mental effort just to score passing grades during exams. This came with the realization that all of us do not have the same baseline, we don’t have the same starting point and same algorithms in doing things. Some people were born with genes that are able to handle math better than other people, some people are more developed in processing words faster than other people, yet here we are, in this world where we only commend and recognize the highest markers, not the ones who moved the most mountains, not the ones with the highest deltas (change) from their baseline.

I want to make myself clear, I am not trying to demonize the concept of competition. In fact, competition is pretty useful, as long as it’s harnessed properly and done healthily. However if we will just live our lives being baited on by competition alone, our learning and growth will only be limited by being baited, just as long as we are instantly gratified by watching our name (and ego) be placed on a pedestal, after that, nada. The hoops we go through just to satisfy what society wants *eye roll*.

Aside from that, being too obsessed on competition is usually the precursor of not-so-morally-justifiable actions and thoughts (comparison, jealousy, envy, greed, pride, cheating, ungratefulness) and more often than not, it’s all for the sake of ones’ name being placed at the top of the ranks. Don't you guys ever wonder why we get readily dissatisfied whenever we see that other people are doing better than we are? Because we often keep competing with other people rather than bettering ourselves than the persons we were yesterday.

And how did these come into play? Because it's more convenient for our society to place people in ranks, and divide them into groups, the "smart" and the "mediocre", the "competent" and the "incompetent" and sadly, what's even more disturbing is that we do this to young innocent children:

“What will become of Nathan when his authoritarian father finds out that he just fell off the top ten students list because he was failing at English despite studying at it so hard?”

“What will become of Emma when she loses her scholarship because she fell off the top three of the dean’s list, and she knows that her family is financially unstable?”

“What will become of Peter when being better than the rest of his class in academics are all he cares about because that’s his only sole source of validation?”

We don't teach our children to prioritize learning, we teach them to prioritize grades and ranks

Let me just make myself clear though: I’m not saying that we should take competitiveness out of the equation, I’m saying that we should add and rather prioritize improvement and growth, or you know, actual learning instead of competition. I want to live to see the day that in our learning institutions, the kids who show the most improvement, the largest delta ∆ (change) from their previous baseline will be given credit (and hopefully, awarded), despite not being the highest ranker. I hope to see someday, a place where growth is prioritized and improvement is honored, and people are encouraging each other to grow from their previous baseline and reach for the stars beyond what is required in the syllabus.

Screw our current system, because the way I see it, if we continue to operate the way we are operating right now in our deeply flawed cookie-cutter institutions, we just might be depriving ourselves from one of the most important game changers in the course of human history. Let's all strive to be more equitable and encouraging, shall we?