Those three things — autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward — are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to … - Malcolm Gladwell

Much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of (these) one-sided conflicts. Because the act of facing overwhelming odds, produces greatness and beauty.

Parents with a child born at the end of the calendar year often think about holding their child back before the start of kindergarten: it’s hard for a five-year-old to keep up with a child born many months earlier. But most parents, one suspects, think that whatever disadvantage a younger child faces in kindergarten eventually goes away. But it doesn’t. It’s just like hockey. The small initial advantage that the child born in the early part of the year has over the child born at the end of the year persists.

power has an important limitation. It has to be seen as legitimate, or else its use has the opposite of its intended effect.