Relaxation makes us stupid.

You think that downtime will make you happy. You may even dream about getting out of the rat race for good. But Todd Buchholz-a former White House director of economic policy, award-winning teacher at Harvard, hedge fund director, and co-producer of a Tony Award-winning Broadway hit show-wants you to know that you're wrong. It's the race that delivers the rush. So forget about retirement, zen retreats, and making everyone feel like a winner; human beings are hard-wired to compete. Interweaving entertaining stories and cutting-edge research from neuroeconomics to evolutionary biology to Renaissance art to General Motors, Buchholz draws the counterintuitive-yet wholly convincing-conclusion that competition has not only made us taller and smarter, it's what we love and need.