In June last year I was at complete loss. I was a few months into a new job role and felt like I had bitten off more than I can chew. An awesome thing in the new role was more responsibility - apart from a better title, I ended up in a much “leaner” company with more on my plate, the downside was I was almost completely without any support/mentorship structure (or structure of any sort around me).
While earlier I was part of a large company and large product org (a fellow APM, a PM, one senior PM and a VP) to fall back on, the new place was a startup where I was only the second PM to come onboard and that too when the startup was expanding and undergoing typical growing pains. Confusing times for 24 year old me! Bowing down to the Peter Principle, I felt had reached my level of incompetence

The Peter principle is a concept in management theory formulated by Laurence J. Peter and published in 1969. The theory is that the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate’s performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role . Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and “managers rise to the level of their incompetence.”

I had gone from comfort to chaos. But nonetheless, I did tide over this.
Did what I always do, kept my head down, googled shit around, made up shit on the fly where there no good answers, did what was possible & found my way out of the problem. Looking back stuff wasn’t as bad as it looked. Thinking about the whole episode and the Principle Peter, it reminds of difference between fixed mindsets and growth mindsets.

“In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb . In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.”

The Peter Principle is an inherent demonstration of a fixed mindset: “This is the level at which I max out, oops I reached there, now I’m stuck for life. Oh no!” On the other hand someone with growth mindset would think: “I’m definitely dazed and confused, let me try to change whatever I can/learn whatever I can to get outta this” The Growth Mindset is the mere belief that you can consciously change your abilities - whether that belief comes from reading papers on psychology or faith in God or The Secret, it doesn’t matter. Which brings me to another crazy notion - every time you feel like you understand how things work, that things are going fine and everything is under control - you should purposely fuck shit up and get yourself in an uncomfortable position. WTF? Why? you ask.
Because

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough” - Mario Andretti All of us get lazy and start coasting, inertia is a powerful force. Our brain (quite understandably) never sees a problem with things being okay!. “If I ain’t broke, why fix it?” becomes the default slogan . The idea behind making yourself uncomfortable is to make sure you’re constantly challenged and not settling into a fixed mindset again.

What I mean when I say “you should purposely fuck shit up” is not to ruin a nice sunny day by slitting your wrists, thus making yourself “uncomfortable” but doing something as simple deciding to wake up earlier or exercising more or eating less or asking someone out or … Todays post ends with a poem called “Thinking” by Walter D. Wintle, a poem is over a 100 years old yet very obviously about the growth mindset (“Thinking” was “Growth Mindset” before it was cool )

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost a cinch that you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost;
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can!