I just thought I’d post one of the blogs from one of my physics lecturers, for most of you this will probably be just a confirmation of how you already think, but I think it will be much appreciated on this site:
"Dear Student,
There is a fair amount of research-based evidence regarding success in study and work.
In this book review: “You’ll also learn some things that are counterintuitive, such that you should never praise children for being smart or talented.”
http://blogs.nature.com/ericwubbo/2010/04/talent_book_review_mindset_-_the_new_psychology_of_success_carol_dweck.html
it’s on “Nature’s” webpage so probably fairly authoritative.
Here is a part of the above review which does not take too much of your time to read I hope:
The subtleties of praise, for example, are neatly illustrated by one of Dweck’s core experiments, in which she divided preschoolers in two groups, both of which had to solve puzzles. After a certain time had expired, the children had to report how many puzzles they had solved. They then got praised by the experimenter. The children from the first group were praised with sentences like “You got seven out of ten! You must be very smart!”, the children from the second group however heard “Seven out of ten! You must have worked very hard. You can be proud of yourself.”
Of course, the real experiment began only then.
After being praised, the students were asked whether they’d like to solve another set of puzzles, and were allowed to choose either puzzles which were as difficult as the first set, or puzzles with a greater difficulty level. What did you think the kids chose? Most of the children praised for their intelligence chose the ‘standard’ puzzles, the children being praised for working hard chose the more difficult ones.
In reality, all children got the more difficult puzzles (after all, one should never trust an experimental psychologist), which made the ‘clever’ children break down and burst out in tears - suddenly they were not smart anymore. In contrast, the ‘hard workers’ thoroughly enjoyed themselves. When finally a third set of puzzles were given, of the same difficulty as the first set, the ‘intelligent’ children performed worse, the hard workers, in contrast, had improved.
==================== hard work makes the difference ! ============================
This is also borne out by the ten-thousand hour rule:
http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=the+10000+hour+rule
==================== hard work makes the difference ! ============================
And again: Do not, within reason, believe people who are talking about talent being the harbinger of success. Talent plays a role, which is hard to pin down. But enthusiasm and hard work offset it greatly:
http://blogs.nature.com/ericwubbo/2011/03/10/book-review-bounce-by-matthew-syed
So, it may well be that lots of things (supposed facts) you read, heard from parents and teachers are plain wrong. Some of you might have heard about the raging nature-versus-nurture debate. Well, often times both sides are wrong, it is a question of getting enthused by hard work and the success it entails.
If you manage to put in the hours success is virtually guaranteed…
PS: Yes, one can overdo it, there are studies on very highly performing people who get carried away and feel they are still not good enough and commit suicide:
http://web.mit.edu/~sdavies/www/mit-suicides/
One can, however, prove scientifically that suicide is an inefficient way of having a fulfilling life!"