Why the Weight Comes Back.

A note on what this article is. This is a piece about a mechanism — why changes that are structured as projects tend to reverse when the project ends. Weight is the most familiar example of the pattern, which is why the question gets asked in those terms, but bodies...

Willpower Arrives Too Late to Help

Consider the evidence before you accept the diagnosis. You have willpower. You demonstrate it constantly. You get up at a fixed time for other people’s benefit. You’ve maintained professional standards through periods when nobody would have noticed you...

The Yes That Means No

The meeting went well. That’s what you told someone afterwards, and you weren’t wrong about how it felt. There was agreement. Nobody objected. Two people said it made a lot of sense, and one of them said it with actual warmth. Three weeks later, nothing...