We had a conversation at work today and it really got me thinking. I am still thinking, and trying to really formulate my thoughts on the topic, so wanted to put it here, I am genuinely interested in thoughts and perspectives on this.
I work in a school and a colleague was having a discussion with a manager regarding the recent test score of a pupil. My colleague suggested to the manager that maybe the reason for the bad test score was that the pupil was reaching the limit of their ability in the subject. The manager responded with "people don't have limits, they just need to try harder".
My initial reaction to this is that it is bullshit. The manager had recently been reading on growth mindset, and whilst I agree that too many people don't push themselves to their limits, and many of us are often far more capable, and able to grow in a discipline with time and effort, that our initial competencies are not fixed and can be expanded, and that the mindset of "I can't do that" or "I will never be able to do that" often leads people into a dead end and is often false (in some cases), however the blanket statement that this growth is endless just initially seemed off to me.
I'd first like to throw the question out there- what do people think about the statement that "people don't have limits, you just need to try harder"? I am not talking about simply getting better at something with effort, I think we can all agree that this aspect is demonstrably true, at some point you couldn't write, then you learned the basics, built on it and improved, we can see in our own lives that this is just true. I am not asking, or interested in debating whether to not people can get better at something to some extent, the question focuses on an end point to this- is there one?
The manager's argument seemed to imply that unlimited success is a function of time and effort. Whilst we can clearly measure time, can we accurately measure effort for a given task? We can certainly gauge effort, it is usually obvious when someone is half arsing something, or really going for it, but can it be measured to an extent that we can accurately and correctly claim that you have x units still to give, or you are giving x units at the moment, increase it by y? Do you need to be able to? Can you falsify the claim that "I cannot try any harder/You can try harder!"? I am not seeing how such a claim could be falsified, I welcome anyone with a different perspective if they can show how it can. Surely if such a claim cannot be falsified, and given its integral nature to the claim "people don't have limits, you just need to try harder", the claim itself is on shaky scientific grounds?
I suppose that is where time can come in. Is it simply a case that max effort+enough time=win? How do we know what enough time is? And if enough time exceeds the very real limitations on time that we all have, does such a claim have any real practical, realistic authority? Can you measure the ratio of time/effort for a given task to show how long it should take for someone to reach x proficiency at a task? And given that we have finite time, doesn't this limit effectively place a limit on how much you can grow an ability?
It is one that really has me thinking, and I am still trying to formulate my thoughts on it. I genuinely would be interested on people's thoughts on this. And just to clarify, it isn't about simple growth of ability, it is about unending growth to ability, the absence of any limits, which was the claim the manager made.