Is it cool to be cool?

Around 1990, Daniel Goleman first described the concept of Emotional Intelligence. In other words, in addition to the already recognized types of intelligence in the Gardner model such as spatial intelligence and musical intelligence, there is intelligence related to understanding and regulating emotions. This site gives a quick overview of that concept.

But none of that is the reason why I wanted to add a blog post on the subject. There's a great article in today's New York Times that discusses President Elect Obama's calm demeanor and suggests that perhaps his temperament is partly to credit for his electoral success. Who better to lead a country in troubled times than someone who can remain calm in the face of such turmoil? The article goes on to talk about how to regulate your own emotions and lists specific techniques. What would you use when someone backs into your car in a parking lot? I would imagine repression of anger might work, and it's way too late for situation avoidance by that point.