The Cult of Microsoft

At the core of Microsoft, a three-trillion-dollar hardware and software company, lies a kind of social poison — an ill-defined, cult-like pseudo-scientific concept called 'The Growth Mindset" that drives company decision-making in everything from how products are sold, to how your on-the-job performance is judged.

I am not speaking in hyperbole. Based on a review of over a hundred pages of internal documents and conversations with multiple current and former Microsoft employees, I have learned that Microsoft — at the direction of CEO Satya Nadella — has oriented its entire culture around the innocuous-sounding (but, as we’ll get to later, deeply troubling) Growth Mindset concept, and has taken extraordinary measures to institute it across the organization.

One's "growth mindset" determines one’s success in the organization. Broadly speaking, it includes attributes that we can all agree are good things. People with growth mindsets are willing to learn, accept responsibility, and strive to overcome adversity. Conversely, those considered to have a "fixed mindset" are framed as irresponsible, selfish, and quick to blame others. They believe that one’s aptitudes (like their skill in a particular thing, or their intelligence) are immutable and cannot be improved through hard work.