The Triple Package

“the American dream is alive and well.”

an entire subfield of experimental psychology today is devoted to phenomena variously called “effortful control,” “self-regulation,” “time discounting,” “ego strength,” or (more appealingly) “willpower” and “grit.”

, education—like hard work—is not an independent, but a dependent variable. It’s not the explanatory factor; it’s a behavior to be explained.

Mormon culture for much of the twentieth century remained relatively closed to intellectual and scientific inquiry, emphasizing “the authority of scripture over human reason.” In 1967, future Church president Spencer Kimball urged the faculty of Brigham Young University to remember that Mormons are “men of God first and men of letters second, and men of science third … men of rectitude rather than academic competence.”

Today, American culture—whether high or low, blue state or red, blue collar or ivory tower—is much more ambivalent about, and undermining of, everything the Triple Package stands for

eminence, including one conducted by Howard Gardner, most famous for his theory of multiple intelligences.

Winston Churchill:
the twinge of adversity, the spur of slights and taunts in early years are needed to evoke

the twinge of adversity, the spur of slights and taunts in early years are needed to evoke that

the twinge of adversity, the spur of slights and taunts in early years

Mormons, too, weave into their superiority complex their discipline, abstemiousness, and the hardships they endure on mission (a usually two-year proselytizing stint in an assigned location anywhere from Cleveland to Tonga)