RWL #154 - Mindsets, talking to VCs, & Poverty
Greetings from the very quiet, mostly empty University of New Hampshire! The little town of Durham expands and contracts with the seasons. Our year-round population is about 13,000. The University has about 13,000 students. So when the semester ends, it’s like a big exhale and we shrink. Rather suddenly, it’s easy to navigate our pint-sized grocery store, or find parking on Main St. I’ve dusted off my Finance II syllabus for Spring and loaded the learning management system for that course; I’ve started working on my Economics course, but that is going to take more time and effort because it is a new start for me. For the rest of “break” I’ll be working on a few research projects in the hopes that I’ll be able to get a few papers out for review during the spring semester. That’s the rhythm for tenure track professors - students leave and we turn to our research full time. It’s a nice rhythm.
Happy holidays to all! We’re looking forward to Christmas with everyone home, which is the best gift. And going to the new and final Star Wars!
Read
What: Brain Pickings, Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/
Why: This article made me think of the of the tale of the two seekers who climb to the top of a mountain to question an ancient wiseman about the nature of life. One asked, Is life challenging but ultimately joyful? And the wiseman answered yes, and this seeker went away happy, believing in possibility. The second seeker asked, is life challenging and ultimately pointless? And the wiseman answered yes again, and the second seeker went away sad. The moral of the story is we construct the meaning of our lives depending on the lens we choose. This article talks about a “fixed” vs. “growth” mindset.
In one world, failure is about having a setback. Getting a bad grade. Losing a tournament. Getting fired. Getting rejected. It means you’re not smart or talented. In the other world, failure is about not growing. Not reaching for the things you value. It means you’re not fulfilling your potential.
I’d like to think I embrace a growth mindset. As I come to the end of my second year of trying to make a piece of art every day, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of embracing a growth mindset with that project. I’m an OK artist. What’s cool is, I’m better than I was two years ago. But I know I am vulnerable to the fixed mindset, too. I like to think I’m pretty smart, a good writer, a good teacher, etc. I want to believe all those things are true - and yet sometimes I run headlong into evidence that maybe they aren’t as true as I would like. That’s where the resilience that comes from a growth mindset comes in handy. I guess some humility, too. The article is worth a read.
Watch
What: TED2007, How to Pitch a VC, David Rose (14 min)
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_s_rose_how_to_pitch_to_a_vc
Why: I spent a lot of time coaching my students on how to give an effective presentation this semester. I came across this TED Ed talk from 2007. I'm not familiar with Rose, but I think he's got some useful tips on professional presenting - not motivational speaking, but the kind of selling of ideas that most professionals have to engage in regularly. I'll probably share this with my students in the future.
Listen
What: HBR IdeaCast, A Nobel Prize Winner on Rethinking Poverty (and Business) (27 min)
https://hbr.org/ideacast/2019/11/a-nobel-prize-winner-on-rethinking-poverty-and-business.html
Why: I listened to an interview on the HBR Ideacast today with Esther Duflo. Duflo is an economist who, at 46, won the Nobel Prize in economics. That makes her the youngest person to ever win the prize, and only the second woman. That makes me feel like a real slouch. But setting my own inadequacies aside, this is a great interview.
What I thought was most interesting was her micro community approach. Here is a quote to show what I mean:
We started thinking, well, you know, if we open to trade with developing countries, the wages of the low skilled worker will fall a little bit, but just a little bit, on average. And we can compensate them in other ways. Without realizing that the problem is not that the average wage will fall a little bit. The problem is that for some particular people, individual people, it’s going to be a catastrophe, because not only their job will disappear, but the job of all their neighbors will disappear, and the community in which they live is going to go into a tailspin, etc.
And that this individual suffering are going to be perceived as such, and people are not going to feel fine because on average it would have been OK.
It made me think of the old saying, never try to wade across a river that is, on average, three feet deep.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau