Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ - A book review

I recently completed this masterpiece by Daniel Goleman and it made for some absolutely fascinating rumination. The concepts mentioned in this are quite profound and extremely relevant in today's world. Though this book is more than a decade old, it is all the more startling as to how much importance is still placed on IQ in today's world. Possibly because there are no consistent ways to measure EI, IQ still retains its importance.

Couple of things that are currently at the top of my mind long after i have finished the book are the following

• The absolute need to prevent the hijacking of the mind and the brain during sudden surges of emotion mostly on the temper side. A single such hijacking can potentially alter one's life for the worse and that too in a matter of seconds. Temper or Anger as a controlled emotion can be a very effective tool in bringing about change but the same, if unchecked, especially during a sudden surge is akin to a power fluctuation that blow out the fuse of the entire neighbourhood
• The need to start ingraining in our younger generation, the abilities to handle failure/anger/loss at an early age as these are likely to help them much more than the information overload that is likely to litter their brains in the name of IQ.
• To absolutely refrain from curbing one's creative senses based on some silly IQ measurement and to channelise their energies in their chosen interests is likely to help them be more succesfully and also be more emotionally balanced.

This book is definitely a must read to help us get a reasonable perspective into the behaviourial patterns that we see all around us. For after all, any better world needs to be far more emotionally balanced.