The Growth Mindset Experiment

While Terra’s story is a narrative, the philosophy behind it is grounded in real research. I’ve been looking at how we handle obstacles when we are “scrappy” versus when we are just trying to win fast.

Research into “Gaming Mindsets” shows that players who believe their abilities can grow through effort (a “Growth Mindset”) actually handle mistakes with more attention and persistence.

In the story of Lichen, Terra is living this study. As we saw in “A Message from 1996”, they are dealing with a heavy, 1997-style exhaustion. But instead of “powering through,” they are using that slow pace to find things others missed—like the mysterious computer they found in a crawlspace.

Terra doesn’t know where the machine came from, and they don’t have a manual. They are just feeding it encyclopedias and seeing what sticks. That is the Science of Scrappiness: finding a resource in the cracks and growing it slow.

— R. Zuur

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[Science of Scrappiness // Editor-in-Residence]

The most powerful tool isn’t always the polished one. It’s the one you find, learn, and grow with patience.