I'm currently at Microsoft. We're really big on growth mindset. It feels fake when corporate people try to espouse it. It also feels fake when we try to have good dialogues at work. See cargo culting. Yes, talking about these things is probably good, but only in the right environments w/ the right people. Otherwise it feels fake, like we're only pretending.

Maybe this is what happens to many great ideas (e.g. study skills) when they get institutionalized? Cue all the great ideas in school / work that seem ridiculous because of the context or the way they're introduced. Does anyone actually buy this, in the way it's supposed to be intended?

At least for me, there's a loss of legitimacy when a large corporation espouses it. Except maybe health stuff, I think I'm still pretty keen on that. But at least for things in the self-help / mental model space, I think I've already chosen my thought leaders (see LessWrong), and as a result, I'm less inclined to trust other stuff.

Similarly, I vastly appreciate initiatives I take on because rather than someone telling me to do it, even if it's the same thing I would have done otherwise.