“The whole self-esteem movement taught us erroneously that praising intelligence, talent, abilities would foster self-confidence, self-esteem, and everything great would follow. But we’ve found it backfires. People who are praised for talent now worry about doing the next thing, about taking on the hard task, and not looking talented, tarnishing... See more

People who are good at solving poorly defined problems don't get the same kind of kudos. They don’t get any special titles or clubs. There is no test they can take that will spit out a big, honking number that will make everybody respect them.

And that’s a shame. My grandma does not know how to use the “input” button on her TV’s remote control, but... See more

“We never think of giving extraordinarily competent people IQ tests,” he said. “Administering an IQ test to Marie Curie or Albert Einstein would feel foolish. I suspect that Einstein would do very badly, probably outperformed by some precocious, irritating fourteen-year-old.”

“Academic peer review is widely criticized too,” he added. “For expert... See more