The brain is like a muscle and intelligence is not static: the more you use them, the stronger they become. When mistakes are made in processing a difficult task, for example, some neural connections are created while others are reinforced. So a good way to develop the brain is to handle challenging tasks.
Dr. Carol Dweck, the Stanford University researcher who studied people’s mindsets towards learning for decades, explains in her great book “Mindset” that people can have two opposing mindsets. People with a “fixed mindset” consider intelligence as an immutable genetic gift that cannot be changed, while people with a “growth mindset” believe that skills and intelligence can develop and improve through effort, practice, failure and more perseverance.
Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy and author of this article states: “We’ve seen this on Khan Academy as well: students are spending more time learning on Khan Academy after being exposed to messages which praise their tenacity and grit and that underscore that the brain is like a muscle.”
Picture: Salman Khan (Wikimedia Commons)
