I've always been baffled by how much we over-rate the statistically insignificant differences that separate competitors at the top end of the distribution.

We vary greatly in the natural advantages that we've been given. The world's not fair

Without the New York Times, there is no blog community. They'd have nothing to blog about.

We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all.

Emotion is contagious.

The best example of how impossible it will be for Major League Baseball to crack down on steroids is the fact that baseball and the media are still talking about the problem as "steroids.

Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push - in just the right place - it can be tipped.