Paul Tough has insight to offer here and much that I agree with. His premise is that character, or "noncognitive" traits, are not skills as such, and thus can't be taught directly, but rather traits that are formed by environment and being engaged in relevant and rigorous tasks. Beyond this very keen and valuable assertion, however, the book is light on takeaways and depth. He notes in the afterword that this was originally intended to be an online piece, and I think it would have been more fitting in such a form, as I didn't feel this was substantive enough to constitute a book.