I recently read a blog post by Ed Zitron, where he talked about how the “growth mindset” in tech companies, such as Microsoft, is causing these organisations to rot from the inside.
While I don’t have better information to refute Ed’s claims about how the growth mindset is affecting Microsoft’s culture, I do believe it works well on a personal level.
Like Ed, I have seen managers exploiting their teams, making them do more work for less or the same pay in the name of a “growth mindset”, but when utilised rather than misused, the same mindset can help unlock closed doors for you as an individual and even as a team.
I’ve witnessed this many times in my life.
For example, I’ve been an Android app developer since the beginning of my career, and all my roles at various companies have revolved around this skill.
In 2018, the company I worked for needed to develop a toolkit for iOS developers to integrate the company's technology into other apps.
It was a small startup with no iOS developers in the team, so we started looking for contractors who could build this software development kit for us.
We interviewed a couple of folks interested in freelancing for this project, but none stood out. Their work didn't match the quality we were looking for. Nevertheless, as we needed to finish the job, we settled on a guy.
But after weeks of supervising and hours lost in revisions, we agreed the arrangement wasn't quite working out. We spent too much time babysitting the contractor and reviewing his work, and even after all our efforts, the work was substandard.
At the time, I had little work on my plate, so instead of going through another round of hiring, I volunteered to do the job.
I had no experience developing iOS apps, but I told the founders that if they could give me a few weeks to learn, I could prepare a good enough version of the toolkit within the next month.
They agreed.
Over the next few weeks, I spent my days learning the basics of iOS app development and started working on the toolkit. A few weeks later, we published the first working version of the product for anyone to download and use:
It was a win-win for both parties.
The company got their toolkit, and I got paid to learn and experiment with a new programming language.
This new skill rewarded me further because it helped me develop a holistic understanding of mobile engineering across platforms like Android and iOS, strengthening my résumé for future job applications.
The following year, I wanted to work on a side project that required skills beyond my existing skillset.
I was building a blogging platform, so I had to work on creating a website and backend system with minimal knowledge of HTML/CSS and no experience in backend development.
It was going to be a difficult climb.
But instead of giving up on the project or offloading it to a freelancer on Upwork, I spent time acquiring the necessary skills.
I learned Ruby on Rails in a week or two and started building a backend system for the platform. I also learned Kubernetes for server management and spent hours learning about internet traffic routing to create a custom domain functionality for my blogging platform.
The growth mindset might seem cliché here, but it has helped me keep improving my skills and achieve whatever I've aimed for in the last decade, from jobs to side projects.
Although my blogging platform didn't go live, I've used the web development skills I learned in those months in various projects since then.
A similar incident occurred around late 2020.
I wanted to enrich my blog posts by adding hand-drawn digital illustrations within the content, which would help the reader easily visualise what I'm talking about.
At the time, I couldn't even draw a potato well, so drawing detailed objects seemed plenty out of my wheelhouse — a near-impossible task for me.
My wife is a painter who can easily draw these illustrations, but I didn't want to ask her. I wanted to draw them myself because I thought it would be a novel experience.
So, instead of asking my wife to draw illustrations for me, I asked her to teach me how to draw objects and scenes on Procreate.
After a few classes and immense patience from my wife, I drew my first digital illustration with some help and supervision:
Once I got the hang of it, I started drawing good enough illustrations without any supervision, like this one:
Nowadays, my wife draws all the illustrations I need for my book and this blog because I'm swamped with other tasks, but it wasn't a wasted skill.
Learning to draw helped me communicate my ideas clearly. Also, drawing was always the part of my life where I didn't do well, but now I can.
Sure, the growth mindset is not a panacea, and it's often abused for profits by managers in large and small companies, but it's a mindset that can help you overcome many obstacles in life and get closer to your goals.
Try it.
The next time you think, “Oh, I don't have the skills to do that, or I don't know how”, be open to acquiring the necessary skills to bridge the gap instead of giving up.
It'll feel empowering, and you'll be able to achieve things which previously seemed impossible.