We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility.

Policy is driven by more than politics, however. It is equally driven by ideas.

Track is full of the absolute nicest and most polite athletes in all of sports, and where does it get us?

Innovation-the heart of the knowledge economy-is fundamentally social.

My highest compliment is when someone comes up to me to say, "My 14-year-old daughter, or my 12-year-old son read your book and loved it." I cannot conceive of a greater compliment than that - to write something that as an adult I find satisfying, but also that manages to reach a curious 13- or 14-year-old.

We can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.

Our intuitions, as humans, aren't always very good. Changes that happen really suddenly, on the strength of the most minor of input, can be deeply confusing.