Sublime

highly credentialed experts can become so narrow-minded that they actually get worse with experience, even while becoming more confident—a dangerous combination.

an endless parade of trend watchers prophesy about the future and essential twenty-first-century skills, the buzzwords being “creative,” “adaptable,” and “flexible.” The focus, invariably, is on competencies, not values. On didactics, not ideals. On “problem-solving ability,” but not which problems need solving.

Experts do well with these tasks, but once the principles are clear and well defined, computers are cheaper and more reliable.

But what really foreshadowed earning potential was whether students improved over time.

Professor Sheena Iyengar from the Columbia Business School is a psycho-economist who specializes in decision making. Her famous “jam study” was done using specialty jams in a grocery store.

It seemed a sure bet that those for whom things came easily would continue to outpace their classmates. In fact, I expected that the achievement gap separating the naturals from the rest of the class would only widen over time.