It is difficult to spread the contagion of excitement without having a sense of purpose and direction.

In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.

Positive work environments outperform negative work environments.

There is zero correlation between IQ and emotional empathy... They're controlled by different parts of the brain.

Overloading attention shrinks mental control. Life immersed in digital distractions creates a near constant cognitive overload. And that overload wears out self-control.

Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That's why they look alike.

There are a host of surprises among longer-term meditators, like a boost in the immune system from a day of practice, which is not seen in beginners, and a rapid recovery from stress or pain. At the "Olympic level" we find there is no anticipatory anxiety when the stress of pain is certain to come, and no lingering aftereffects - unlike the stress reactions in ordinary folk.