Very gifted people, they win and they win, and they are told that they win because they are a winner. That seems like a positive thing to tell children, but ultimately, what that means is when they lose, it must make them a loser.

Just about every error has a technical and psychological component: get good at discovering those connections

At the very core of my relationship to learning is the idea that we should be as organic as possible. We need to cultivate a deeply refined introspective sense, and build our relationship to learning around our nuance of character.

In America, people focus on the end result; they focus on the star.

It is rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set.

I have never considered myself a prodigy. Others have used that term, but I never bought in to it.

I tend not to dwell on the parallels between chess and business, chess and the martial arts, or any two things for that matter, because the truth is that all pursuits are connected if we gain an eye for the thematic links.