5 ms·
But it's very hard to design a feedback loop with a short enough cycle to properly reward the latter. It makes me think of the line about raising children, tha
by wrsh07 10y ago
But it's very hard to design a feedback loop with a short enough cycle to properly reward the latter.
It makes me think of the line about raising children, that it's better to say, "I recognize that you worked really hard on that, it looks wonderful!" than "Good job! You're so smart!" [1]
because one captures the reason why they did a good job. By calling that out, you can perhaps reinforce behavior with a longer view.
[1]: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/the-s-word/397205/ http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/the-s-w...
- empath75 10y agoYeah, my parents and all my teachers told me I was 'gifted' from 2nd grade, and I really feel like it held me back, overall. Yes, I picked stuff up quickly, but I was also lazy as hell, and given no real incentive to learn how to not be lazy until it was too late to turn around my disastrous grades. I have a son now, and I'm going to try to avoid calling him smart or gifted. Or at least not telling him that he's smarter than the other kids.
- delazeur 10y agoI had a similar experience: that kind of reinforcement encouraged me to try to do the least work possible to get the same results as others in order to prove how gifted I was, instead of working hard to go above and beyond. It was a rude awakening when I got to the point in life when I wasn't competing against my peers to complete set tasks, but rather competing against them to provide the most valuable contributions to a research group or company. However, I also believe that this kind of explanation can be harmful because it puts the blame for my laziness on others. Even though the research supports the idea that this effect occurred, ultimately I got past it by focusing on my own agency.
- lintiness 10y agoi have two young kids (3 & 2). when they do something "clever", it is always the thing they've done that's clever, not them.
- sk5t 10y agoThe stronger lesson I took away from the article on reinforcement is that praising hard work makes the child less afraid of failure and more apt to persevere. Otherwise, failing a task is a scary symptom of not being smart enough.