The Psychology of Failure
@vaidehijoshi
😱halp
I failed. 🙊
I failed often. 🙉
I failed badly. 🙈
working in tech can feel fulfilling
and also terrifying 😳
and our thoughts can be absurd
we spend a lot of time with our thoughts
it's okay.
i can do this.
This seems impossibly hard.
I don’t understand it.
If I can’t understand this now...
I’ll never be able to understand it.
They can write perfect code so easily, and on the first try. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that.
My code is so awful. Theirs is so much better!
oh my god.
i can't do this.
it's okay.
i can do this.
it's okay.
i can do this.
i give up.
notice a pattern?
anything short of perfection was a failure.
all or nothing
thinking
cognitive distorition
thinking in absolutes is a very human thing to do
unreasonable standard
How many of us are perfect?
©Beth Evans
The language we use with ourselves is often the most unkind.
cognitive restructuring
recognizing the
shades of grey
Well, I still don’t understand this abstraction, but I finally got a handle on that tricky function today!
This seems impossibly hard, I’ll never learn it.
I struggled fixing that bug on my own today, but I wrote the tests for it much faster this time!
I didn’t do it right the first time, I’ll never get it right.
things to learn
🙋🏽
Changing your internal messaging takes
constant work.
1. All or nothing thinking is a trap.
Look for the shades of grey in between.
I give up.
My inability was a failure.
My intelligence and capabilities were fixed.
How smart and capable I am now are how smart and capable I will always be.
People learn differently.
Learning is not binary.
Carol Dweck
incremental theory of intelligence
growth mindset
fixed mindset
vs
quicker to give up
opportunity to learn
vs
intelligence is static
intelligence can grow
vs
fixed mindset
🙋🏽
growth mindset
🙋🏽
i'll never get there
i'm not there yet
i'll never get there
“If you get the grade not yet, you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future.”
tech = constant learning
(with its own learning curve)
perfection isn't what indicates learning.
effort is.
2. Our intelligence is malleable, just like our mindsets.
Remember the yet.
disheartening
things to learn
🙋🏽
things to learn
🙋🏽
Am I actually getting any better at this?
things to learn
🙋🏽
reflect on how far you have come
critical reflection
reflecting in the moment
reflecting after the moment
John Dewey
education theory:
written reflection
journals + notebooks
blogging
and how they lead to your actions.
understanding your assumptions,
your feelings,
only if we understand our actions in the past can we change them in the future
3. Looking back is just as important as looking forward.
Celebrate how far you've come.
failures in my own thinking
reflects on successes and failures
recognizes their growth
believes their intelligence can change
self-efficacy
the belief in your own ability to achieve something.
self-efficacy
facing failure is a step towards becoming a programmer with
self-efficacy
it's how you pick yourself up from it that matters.
failure is inevitable.
i give up.
💪
thank you!
i can do this.
i give up.
@vaidehijoshi
i can do this.
and you will.
i can do this.
The Psychology of Failure
By Vaidehi Joshi
