I'd be sitting in a mud hut, and then there'd be a Viking ride up, and he'd put a hatchet through my skull.

I'm Angela Duckworth.

I'm Stephen Dubner, and you're listening to No Stupid Questions.

Today on the show, how does praise affect the human psyche?

Oh, God, you guys are just so great.

Love you.

Also, how do you measure psychological trauma?

Don't immediately start drinking.

Too late.

Stephen, I have been wondering about praise lately.

I'm teaching undergraduates, and at the end of every class, I have them

rate me on a scale from zero, total waste of my time, to 10. Can I just say I'm glad you include

zero? Because scales of 1 to 10 feel dishonest. Dishonest. What do you mean why? It's like,

what if I think you're worse than one? Oh, you want to give people the full

range to express themselves. I would rarely grade someone a total zero, but there is a phrase

total zero. The reason I have at zero to ten is because it's very clear that a zero is bad. At one,

you're kind of like, yeah, you're number one. So zero to 10, zero, awful, awful.

Okay, so I tell my students, this is in the spirit of Kaizen, which is Japanese for continuous

improvement. I tell them that real experts crave negative feedback to hone their weaknesses and get

better. But honestly, what I really want is for the kids to give me a 10 every time and to be

praised and be told that there's nothing more that I could possibly do to improve my teaching

or anything else about me. So I guess my question is, should I be asking for advice on what I can do better?

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