It's as if we require an optimal amount of adversity (which is not zero), on every level, in order to be at our best. Too much and we snap like twigs. Too little, and we get these depressed rich kids - the yearning to achieve, to overcome, is frustrated for not finding anything to get traction against, and the motivational mechanisms withdraw their participation.

If true, this has enormous implications for education in general. I'm thinking of all the trophies my kids got in school just for showing up.