Givers

Adam Grant has authored an article titled Who's Smarter: The Selfish or the Generous?

In a series of experiments led by the Yale psychologist David Rand, people's actual choices fluctuated based on whether they had time to think. When they had less than 10 seconds to choose, more than 55 percent gave. But when they had more time to reflect, giving rates dropped, with fewer than 45 percent giving. This follows a pattern that Rand and colleagues call spontaneous giving and calculated greed. When our decisions are governed by emotion and instinct, we act generously. When we have time to rationally analyze the options, we become more selfish.

...Why would smarter people give more? This evidence is relatively new, but two related explanations are gaining steam. First, the more intelligent you are, the more you excel at analyzing other people's interests. As James writes, "people with higher cognitive ability are better able to understand the needs of distant others." Second, the smarter you are, the more you reject zero-sum, win-lose thinking.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-grant/whos-smarter-the-selfish-_b_3312169.html

Speaking about giving, this afternoon I came across a video on YouTube featuring an inspirational Hebrew speaker, Rachel Bolton. Listening to her advice, I was struck by one statement she made about how G-d gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want. Our spouses, our friends and neighbors are what we need.
Let's not waste time wanting something that G-d has determined is not what we need.