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It's virtually impossible to imagine life without learning. We come into the world armed with little more than a bunch of primitive survival instincts, but it’s thanks to our ability to learn that we start adapting to the environment, going from helpless infants into semi-autonomous children before maturing into young adults. Still, when it comes to how we learn, most of us differ considerably at every stage in that process. Now scientists are learning more about that variation and what's behind it.

Psychologists have studied learning for over a century, but research in this area has really taken off in the last two decades. Most studies indicate that our personalities largely determine the ways we like to learn. In other words, who we are shapes how we learn. Here's what some of the latest research has uncovered about the most common learning styles and the ways we can learn to our fullest potential.

Human resource managers are currently embracing talent analytics like never before. Companies are evaluating and analysing raw data to derive valuable insights which are helping them to hire the right talent, retain them as well as help them learn and grow internally.

Talent analytics takes into account all the data, rather than limited samples, so a full-fledged picture emerges. It looks for patterns in the data and discovers critical connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. Such data can be related to employees' pre-employment assessments to background checks to social media profiles.

When it comes to hiring, more organizations are casting a wide net to find top talent. As such, they are incorporating technology into their recruiting processes.

It’s just not practical for companies to fly every potential candidate to their headquarters for an interview in person, so today’s job seekers need to be prepared for a recruiter to say the words "video interview." It can seem intimidating, especially if you’re not happy about the way you look on camera. But with these expert tips, you can learn to master the logistics of the video interview and spend your time focusing instead on wowing the company.

After working five years as a regional director at a large health insurer in Oakland, Calif., Daniel Eddleman felt ready to move up the ladder. So he found a mentor within the company who agreed with Mr. Eddleman that his performance and leadership ability merited the promotion.

But he'd need to work on a few soft skills to clinch the job. "It can be a challenging environment to get noticed in because it's such a big organization," says Mr. Eddleman, who connected with a job coach who helped him identify and work on three weak areas—including the ability to self-assess, manage his emotions and brag.

We spend an awful lot of time in school throughout our lifetimes, diligently studying and cramming and writing exams, all in the quest to be more intelligent human beings.

How how much time do you spend on your emotional intelligence?

If you're like the average human being, the answer is probably: "Um, not much."

That's too bad, because according to researchers from Rutgers, there are 19 different ways emotional intelligence contributes to the bottom line in any work organization. Emotional intelligence guides our ability to deal with others; to understand their emotions, as well as our own.

Workplace stress — such as long hours, job insecurity and lack of work-life balance — contributes to at least 120,000 deaths each year and accounts for up to $190 billion in health care costs, according to new research by two Stanford professors and a former Stanford doctoral student now at Harvard Business School.

“If employers are serious about managing the health of their workforce and controlling their health care costs, they ought to be worried about the environments their workers are in,” says Jeffrey Pfeffer, a Stanford professor of organizational behavior. Pfeffer, with colleagues Stefanos A. Zenios of Stanford GSB and Joel Goh of Harvard Business School, conducted a meta-analysis of 228 studies, examining how 10 common workplace stressors affect a person’s health.

Wasting time can be a great thing. Taking breaks and indulging in distractions gives your body and brain a chance to refresh and actually increases your output over the long haul. Study after study proves this.

The problem isn't when you decide to kick back. The problem is when you waste time without even realizing that's what you're doing. Spinning your wheels--engaging in pointless activities that don't help you move your company or your life forward--eats through your mental resources, frustrates your need for accomplishment, and is generally a short and sure route to burnout.

So what are these insidious activities that feel potentially important but are actually pretty worthless? The Web offers plenty of thoughtful suggestions, from the false productivity hack (that actually costs you time) to various forms of vanity and emotional drama that simply sap your energy. Here's a roundup.

The image is from cartoonist Hugh MacLeod, who came up with such a brilliant way to express a concept that’s often not that easy to grasp.

The image makes a clear point—that knowledge alone is not useful unless we can make connections between what we know. Whether you use the terms “knowledge” and “experience” to explain the difference or not, the concept itself is sound.

Lots of great writers, artists and scientists have talked about the importance of collecting ideas and bits of knowledge from the world around us, and making connections between those dots to fuel creative thinking and new ideas.

IN 1930, when the world was “suffering…from a bad attack of economic pessimism”, John Maynard Keynes wrote a broadly optimistic essay, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren”. It imagined a middle way between revolution and stagnation that would leave the said grandchildren a great deal richer than their grandparents. But the path was not without dangers.

One of the worries Keynes admitted was a “new disease”: “technological unemployment…due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour.” His readers might not have heard of the problem, he suggested—but they were certain to hear a lot more about it in the years to come.