You are talking about a game.<p>You mention &quot;successes and failures&quot; and say that it depends on this &quot;fixed mindset&quot; vs &quot;growth mindset&quot; stuff. And here you imply the same thing:<p>&quot;With a growth mindset, every social interaction is an opportunity to improve. Saying something awkward is simply an indication that you need to put more effort into that area.&quot;<p>So, if you are trying to &quot;improve&quot;, it must be improving at something, which makes it into a game. Saying something awkward in itself shouldn&#x27;t be considered bad or wrong.<p>You never mentioned the other people in the social situations once in your article. Isn&#x27;t that actually the most important thing? What if, for example, they&#x27;re assholes? What if you just don&#x27;t get along with them? Is it a failure that you aren&#x27;t compatible with them?<p>It&#x27;s like you are trying to create and improve upon some sort of mask in order to fool people that you are someone you&#x27;re not. If you are able to do so, not say &quot;awkward&quot; things, as you wrote, then you have succeeded (and also if you have a &quot;growth mindset&quot; you can learn to &quot;succeed&quot; more often which is a vast oversimplification of the mind and damn silly as well). Otherwise, you failed, and you need to &quot;put more effort into that area&quot;. Reevaluate what you did, basically, so you can improve your mask.<p>It&#x27;s ridiculous, and it is a game mindset.<p>If you want to connect with people, which is what most social situations are about, you have to start being honest. Concentrate on what&#x27;s important, which for most social situations is having <i>fun</i>, finding something you enjoy, and letting your mind run with that. Not be in this mental deathgrip of constant thought of self-improvement and self-evaluation that you&#x27;re espousing.