So to simplify - explaining the state of the world is fine, but there's a difference between that and praising someone for it.
Exactly. Praising means socially encouraging someone to do more of X. If X is fixed trait, there is no way one could do more of X. They can only do more signalling of X.
People sometimes think that giving a honest feedback about any positive trait is implicitly a praise. And they have a point, too. But I guess it's a question of giving this feedback in a proper context.
Signalling of a fixed trait is sometimes useful and sometimes harmful. It can encourage people to work on what they are good at. It can also discourage them from trying new things.
On the othe...
Although my 8-year-old son likes his teacher, he is frequently bored at school. He attends a high quality suburban public school in the United States. He has a lot of traits in common with LessWrong readers, and we would like advice for what he can do to counter his boredom. Many of you must have found grade school more or less tedious. What were your coping strategies?