The reaction to his death, with people leaving candles and flowers outside Apple stores and politicians singing praises on the internet, is proof that Mr Jobs had become something much more significant than just a clever money-maker.

When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.

They were encouraged by the city officials' praise.

"Say, you know, this is the best student I've ever had," says Kuheli Dutt, a social scientist and diversity officer at Columbia University's Lamont campus. "Compare those excellent letters with a merely good letter: 'The candidate was productive, or intel

Compare those excellent letters with a merely good letter: The candidate was productive,or intelligent,or a solid scientist or something that's clearly solid praise, but nothing that singles out the candidate as exceptional or one of a kind.

Research has also shown that in coeducational settings, teachers are more likely to praise and give in-depth responses to boys' comments in class.

Somewhat nostalgically, he quotes John Maynard Keynes' justly famous words of praise to the bookstore: "One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye."

But, Kapur notes, none of us like to fail, no matter how often Silicon Valley entrepreneurs praise the beneficial effects of an idea that fails or a start-up company that crashes and burns.

Then, one day, I came across a book, called In Praise of Slowness, and realized that being busy is not only detrimental, but also has the danger of turning life into an endless race.