Our tendency to create heroes rarely jibes with the reality that most nontrivial problems require collective solutions.

The capacity for "uncontaminated wonder," ultimately, is what distinguishes the successful from the ordinary, the happily engaged players of whatever era from the chronically disappointed and malcontent. Therein lies a lesson for geeks, geezers, and the sea of people who fall in between.

One of the worst mistakes is to do nothing.

Leaders wonder about everything, want to learn as much as they can, are willing to take risks, experiment, try new things. They do not worry about failure but embrace errors, knowing they will learn from them.

First and foremost, effective leaders must continuously strive to make themselves smarter and better at making judgments.

The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

Organizations should try to find out if their learning programs actually work.