Sublime

In his compelling book on education, How Children Succeed, Paul Tough combined first-hand reporting from American schools with evidence from academic research to argue that we have overestimated the extent to which successful learning depends on intelligence, and underestimated the importance of ‘non-cognitive traits’ – put simply, character.

Malamud’s conclusion: “The benefits to increased match quality . . . outweigh the greater loss in skills.” Learning stuff was less important than learning about oneself. Exploration is not just a whimsical luxury of education; it is a central benefit.

Paul Tough, in his recent book How Children Succeed, draws on Dweck’s work and others’ to make the case that our success is less dependent on IQ than on grit, curiosity, and persistence.