Nisbett gives a cogent argument for reforming our understanding of intelligence. Of all the measures of someone's "smarts," their IQ is merely part of the equation. Cultural variables have serious effects on intelligence, not to mention belief patterns - if your culture tends to believe that being good at math is an innate trait rather than the result of hard work and persistence, then you are surely going to have two cultures with very different outcomes in mathematic intelligence. For Nisbett, genetics is merely a springboard for future achievement - not an unbending and unchanging ruler. He examines several educational intervention programs in detail and makes the statistics comprehensible to the lay reader. Highly recommended for book groups interested in education and society.