But whatever authority I have to speak about the matters contained within this book comes from the origins of my name itself, not the credentials after it.

Once something becomes too popular, the elites update their tastes to distinguish themselves from ordinary people.

I learned that so much of success depends not on what people do, but what they don’t do. It’s about avoiding rash and reckless actions that will land us in trouble.

One study tracked more than six thousand young adults in the US at the beginning of their careers over the course of two decades, and found that those who believed that life’s outcomes are due to their own efforts as opposed to external factors became more successful in their careers and went on to attain higher earnings.25

In other words, a poor kid in the US is nearly four times more likely to graduate from college than a foster kid.

Once, in English, a kid asked our teacher about the difference between “hung” and “hanged” and I announced, “Hung is when you have a huge cock!” while unfolding my arm and dropping it down on the desk. “You know where to go,” the teacher said, pointing in the direction of the principal.

Later, at Cambridge, I told a fellow graduate student about my friend Antonio, who could have been recruited to play college football. All he had to do was attend makeup classes for two weeks and get a B. He went for the first week only and then bailed. My Cambridge friend replied, “Maybe it’s good he didn’t go to college. If that’s who he was and

That was the language many students used. Danger and harm and pain. Words like trauma meant something different for them.

I’ve come to believe that upward social mobility shouldn’t be our priority as a society. Rather, upward mobility should be the side effect of far more important things: family, stability, and emotional security for children. Even if upward mobility were the primary goal, a safe and secure family would help achieve it more than anything else. Conven