Megan McArdle

It is a vast, and pervasive, cognitive mistake to assume that people who agree with you (or disagree) do so on the…

— Megan McArdle

“Dweck encourages parents and teachers to praise children for their effort, rather than their intelligence, talent, or looks.”

— Megan McArdle

“If they’re forced into a challenge they don’t feel prepared for, they may even engage in what psychologists call “self-handicapping”: deliberately doing…

— Megan McArdle

We have made it impossible for children to fall very far—and in so doing, we have robbed them of the joys of…

— Megan McArdle

The up side of down: why failing well is the key to success.

— Megan McArdle

“Most of all, learning to fail well means overcoming our natural instincts to blame someone—maybe ourselves—whenever something goes wrong.”

— Megan McArdle

Over the years, I developed a theory about why writers are such procrastinators: We were too good in English class. This sounds…

— Megan McArdle

“The alternative to villains who have done something wrong is a universe where bad things sometimes happen to people who don’t deserve…

— Megan McArdle

“...simple things, but each error made the other ones more dangerous, like sticks of kindling to a roaring fire”

— megan mcardle

“object is to take lots of small, manageable risks, because that, he says, is the only way to figure out what really…

— Megan McArdle

If we wanted a program to help the majority of the population, we'd offer loan guarantees to help poor people get access…

— Megan McArdle

“If they’re forced into a challenge they don’t feel prepared for, they may even engage in what psychologists call “self-handicapping”: deliberately doing…

— Megan McArdle

“the people who dislike challenges think that talent is a fixed thing that you’re either born with or not. The people who…

— Megan McArdle

“Like most people, I couldn't let go of the money we'd wasted. That's why so many people eat awful meals, watch horrible…

— Megan McArdle

“Writers who don’t produce copy—or leave it so long that they couldn’t possibly produce something good—are giving themselves the perfect excuse for…

— Megan McArdle

I'd also like us to encourage people to gang rush shooters, rather than following their instincts to hide; if we drilled it…

— Megan McArdle

“Learning to fail well means learning to understand your mistakes, because unless you know what went wrong, you may do the wrong…

— Megan McArdle

“a European executive who works for a company that has failed is an executive who no longer has a career. In America,…

— Megan McArdle

“The reason we struggle with insecurity,” says Pastor Steven Furtick, “is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”

— Megan McArdle

“Work finally begins,” says Alain de Botton, “when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.”

— Megan McArdle

“fear of being unmasked as the incompetent you “really” are is so common that it actually has a clinical name: impostor syndrome.”

— Megan McArdle

Entrenched customs represent a social equilibrium, and moving away from that equilibrium is difficult to do on your own.

— Megan McArdle