[baoluofu]

I feel like you have presented a straw man argument for what a growth mindset is when it comes to individual people. You have taken extreme behaviours and ascribed them to a growth mindset, which I would disagree with.

I would expect a growth mindset as applied to health and fitness would recognise short term versus long term benefits. Maintaining a healthy bodyweight decreases the risk of all cause mortality. Losing weight to the point of anorexia would cause numerous potential problems, and quickly be recognised as not ideal and a different approach applied.

Optimising conversations only for maximum knowledge extraction is not a valid approach within the broader goal of optimising social interactions to maintain a healthy group of friends and family who you enjoy spending time with and can depend upon for years to come.

A diet of pure protein shakes and broccoli is clearly not in line with any reasonable approach to a healthy diet which instead should aim to have a broad a varied source of nutrients, again with the goal of maintaining long term health and supporting whatever sports/training/activities the person takes part in.

A programmer/software engineer who is serious about improving their craft would be much better served by taking a holistic view of their role and expanding their knowledge and expertise to a much broader set of skills than just algorithms and data structures.

Your hypothetical deranged person I would argue is operating under the exact opposite of a growth mindset.

[jbreckmckye]

I think you are hung up on some careless phrasing on my part.

I'm lambasting the "growth strategy" that leads companies to release worse products via over-optimisation. I am pointing out how this sort of 'growth strategy' would lead to absurd behaviours if a human applied the same logic.

[theodric]

The risk of posting on HN is having your rhetorical flourish taken literally, deconstructed, and criticized in excruciating detail: QED.

[HelloMcFly]

I think the problem here is that "growth mindset" has a more specific meaning to many readers that is not at all synonymous with "growth strategy", and there's some crossing of streams going on.

[throwaway_08932]

This risk multiplies when you have the audacity to make a joke on HN.

[gretch]

Unfortunately this guy broke the first and most important rule of telling a joke -> it has to be funny.

[kibwen]

FWIW, I call this "the virus mentality". Growth at all costs, even if it means the death of the host.

[ChainOfFools]

Well they do call it viral growth unironically. I think the ambivalent moral motivation behind it would be a little better surfaced by calling it the cancer cell mindset.

[willsmith72]

"Growth mindset" has far more and different meaning to "growth strategies of companies"

[rvba]

I live in the American Gardens Building on W. 81st Street on the 11th floor. My name is Patrick Bateman. I'm 27 years old. I believe in taking care of myself and a balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine. In the morning if my face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

It's an analogy, if it were perfect it would cease to be an analogy and be the thing itself.

Analogy is a literary device for conveying an idea. You obviously understood the idea being conveyed, thus, the analogy did exactly what it was meant to do.

[theelous3]

I would say someone like David Goggins probably fits the bill. Some people find his level of drive inspirational, I find it deranged. Ultimately I suppose the outcomes are good. Great health (probably) and a great fitness influencer brand, but the desire for suffering that fuels it all and the incredible levels of self criticism and even hatred involved, make it seem far more like some kind of fitness anorexia than self care.

I think it would be reasonable to class his mode of being as that of individual growth mindset.

[phlakaton]

You are assuming a growth mindset has identified the correct ways to measure growth, and is capable of recognizing when it has missed the mark and why. I think the wreckage of products all around us that have grown dramatically – from exciting starts into miserable current-states – shows that anorexia is closer than you think.

[rngname22]

You're missing the point which is that growth mindsets, while well intentioned, may optimize for the wrong things and cause not only suboptimal outcomes but even inhuman ones.

The point isn't that the particular strategy for health and fitness is right or wrong, it's that the growth mindset causes the person (Bob?) to over-focus on that aspect of their life to the detriment of more important but less obvious ones, like personal relationships, being kind to others, or enjoying fallen leaves in autumn.

Bob spends his 20s trying to improve his bodyfat percentage, max his bench, get a Porsche, and build his 401k.

He misses out on his niece's early childhood, loses his highschool friendships, and breaks up with his girlfriend for a job opportunity in a different city.

This is like the printer company focusing on revenue instead of brand loyalty or its reputation.