Deeper Talents

David Brooks has a new book out - - The Social Animal (2011).  He points out in the book that we have tended to define human capital in the narrowest manner - - IQ, degrees, professional registration, and technical skills.  For an engineer, all of these skills are critical for professional success.  But Brooks points out that a ranger of deeper talents, those that span both reason and emotion, are also critical.  Five of these are outlined below:

1. Attunement - - The ability to enter other minds and learn what they have to offer.
2. Equipose - - The ability to serenely monitor the movements of one's own mind and correct for biases and shortcomings.
3. Metis - - The ability to see patterns in the world and derive a gist from complex situations.
4. Sympathy - - The ability to fall into a rhythm with those around you and thrive in groups.
5. Limerence - - This isn't a talent as much as a motivation.  The conscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or the love of God.  Some people seem to experience this drive more powerfully than others.