Well, waiting is not fun although, when the wait, both Meda and I will have a new iPhone 5.

Since getting a notice that they had shipped, I’ve been monitoring the progress as the new phones follow the UPS route from China and eventually to Honolulu. I recall doing the same thing a couple of years ago while waiting for my original iPad to make the same transit.

Here was the UPS info as of a short while ago….

I’m feeling a lot like 4-year old Theo, who is shown waiting in this video after being told he could eat a piece of candy now, or wait ten minutes and get two of them. He’s trying to wait. I’m waiting. I feel Theo’s pain.

The video was featured in a recent episode of “This American Life.” Apparently waiting is one of the skills we learn as kids that turns out to be highly correlated with success in school, college, and out in the world of work.

Ira talks with Paul Tough, author of the new book How Children Succeed, about the traditional ways we measure ability and intelligence in American schools. They talk about the focus on cognitive abilities, conventional “book smarts.” They discuss the current emphasis on these kinds of skills in American education, and the emphasis standardized testing, and then turn our attention to a growing body of research that suggests we may be on the verge of a new approach to some of the biggest challenges facing American schools today. Paul Tough discusses how “non-cognitive skills” — qualities like tenacity, resilience, impulse control — are being viewed as increasingly vital in education, and Ira speaks with economist James Heckman, who’s been at the center of this research and this shift.

Doctor Nadine Burke Harris weighs in to discuss studies that show how poverty-related stress can affect brain development, and inhibit the development of non-cognitive skills. We also hear from a teenager named Kewauna Lerma, who talks about her struggles with some of the skills discussed, like restraint and impulse control.