Great people are great in the sense that they are willing to explore their own specialty and values, and have the courage and insistence to apply their values to society, creating something meaningful.

A sober look at any field shows that the top performers are rarely more gifted than the also-rans, but they almost invariably outwork them. This doesn't mean that some people aren't more athletic or smarter than others. The elite are elite partly because they have some genetic gifts - for learning and hand-eye coordination, for instance - but the very best rise because they take great pains to maximise that gift.

To child psychologist David Anderegg, the nerd stereotype is not just a fleeting playground obstacle. It represents a particularly American strain of anti-intellectualism that has plagued the culture since Ralph Waldo Emerson endorsed the idea that Americans were “men of action, not men of reflection.”

By Cheryl M. Ackerman, Ph.D. -- In a society that largely considers gifted adults to be those who have achieved some significance in their field, and which focuses almost all of its attention (when it pays any at all) on gifted children, it is challenging to think about gifted adults in other ways.

Prof. Dweck talks [in multiple videos] about how people's beliefs concerning their own intelligence affects whether they can use and grow their skills.

ScienceDaily news story on research of Carol Dweck, PhD and others -- Research on how junior high school students' beliefs about intelligence affect their math grades found that those who believed that intelligence can be developed performed better than those who believed intelligence is fixed.

By Rebecca Wallace-Segall -- Ben, 16, heads to my creative writing lab to work on his heartfelt memoir about his parents' bitter divorce. Alison, 15, rushes from her elite private school in the Bronx to work on her short screenplay... Why, one might wonder, do these kids need an extracurricular creative writing coach? The answer is simple, though twisted: Their schools -- while touting well-known athletic teams -- are offshoots of the "progressive education" movement and uphold a categorical belief that "thought competition" is treacherous.

No conception of giftedness or talent works in a cultural vacuum... A cross-cultural view picks up a wide variety of international templates for the identification and education of the gifted and talented, which are sometimes entirely opposing. The wider view can demonstrate unrecognised stereotyping and expectations, and illustrate the often serious effects of social influences on opportunities for the development of high-level potential and its promotion throughout life.

In Britain, the academic achievements of gifted girls in grade school are surpassing those of gifted boys in almost all areas of study and at all ages, whereas this does not appear to be the case in the USA. The evidence suggests two major reasons for this difference. Emotionally, British girls are now showing greater confidence in their abilities.

The study, begun in 1974 across the UK, used a battery of tests, including IQ, personality, behaviour and in-depth interviewing for children, parents and teachers. The group of labelled gifted were found to have significantly more emotional problems than the non-labelled group, which they mostly grew out of. Now in their forties, a gifted childhood has not always delivered outstanding adult success. Better predictive factors were hard work, emotional support and a positive, open personal outlook.