Sublime

We infer that it’s an immutable fact of human nature that very few have the potential for excellence because we see very few attaining excellence.

Mark’s field of time is harder to survey; because, since he is, at root, still an infant, his future is not yet something that cannot change. He believes there’s some simple, radical difference about him. He hopes it’s genius, fears it’s madness. Magda knows it’s neither. She knows that in truth Mark is just a radically simple person, wildly noncom

Stephen Palmer, a professor of psychology at the University of California who directs the Visual Perception and Aesthetics Lab,

Satisficing

larger, contemporary fears about just how intractable or manipulable so-called human nature is.

Unrealistic optimism is a pervasive feature of human life; it characterizes most people in most social categories.

His mantra became “When in turmoil, turn to narrative.”

Questlove is a polymath—an