Living with Our Genes

"[...] contrary to pupular belief, the most important enviromental factors are not rearing, education, or social status. Rather they are random and uncontrollable experiences such as the precise concentration of particular chemical in the brain, or something apparently minor like a childhood case of the measles.[...]
We spend billions of dollars -- and hours of sweaty agony -- trying to mold our bodies into the current cultural ideal, only to watch them sag back to their natural shapes.[...] We will eat the way we've always eaten, and we'll have the same activity level we had as children, or even earlier in the womb.[...]
The evidence that IQ is largely inherited is overwhelming.[...]
Encouraging news is that genes don't always play their strongest role until adulthood. Intelligence in children can be very strongly influenced by sdults because infants and youngsters are not capable of simulating themselves intellectually;[...]"