The overall point of the article, that specific types of praise may be more effective encouragement for children than simply saying "you're smart!", is well-supported. Unfortunately, the studies showing that simple "you're smart" praise is harmful were not as convincing. They related one line of praise given after one test to the behaviour of a small group of children, and extrapolated why those children behaved as they did based on that single line. Those explanations are presented anecdotally. Another group (unbelievably) reviewed 15,000 papers in a few years, discarding the ones they didn't like, and keeping only 200 that apparently showed that people with high self esteem are not better off by four (arbitrary) criteria.