The smart kids who lied
You were the smart one. So now, in a meeting, when you don’t understand something, you nod. You look it up under the table later. Asking would mean admitting you’re lost, and being lost was never part of the deal.
In the late 1990s Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck gave fifth graders a set of puzzles and praised them in one of two ways. Some heard that they must be smart. Others heard that they must have worked hard. Then came a much harder set. The children praised for being smart enjoyed it less, did worse afterward and, when asked to report their scores to other children, were far more likely to lie about them.
One sentence of praise taught them that struggling meant they weren’t who everyone thought they were. A lot of grown women are still living by that sentence.
Rewire Your Brain is for the smart one who’s tired of pretending she has it figured out: the science of how change sticks, and a workbook to do it on paper.






