Bring Gratitude to the Table this Christmas

About the Author

John Tierney writes a column, Findings, for the Science Times section. He previously wrote the Big City column for the Times Magazine and the Metro section, the Political Points column for the Washington bureau, and an Op-Ed column. He is the co-author, with the social psychologist Roy Baumeister, of the New York Times best-seller, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (Penguin Press, 2011). An excerpt, “Do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue?”, ran in the Times Magazine. It was reviewed in the Times by Steven Pinker and named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2011. Mr. Tierney writes often about social sciences and about general controversies in science and medicine, such as the prosecution of doctors for prescribing pain medication. He has written columns on energy, like a $5,000 bet he placed on the price of oil, and about environmental issues, including a much-quoted critique of recycling. Mr. Tierney is also the author of The Best-Case Scenario Handbook (Workman Publishing, 2002), and the co-author, with Christopher Buckley, of the comic novel, God Is My Broker: A Monk Tycoon Reveals the 7 ½ Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (Random House, 1999). Prior to joining the Times, Mr. Tierney was a contributing editor to Discover and Health magazines, a staff writer at Science 81-85 magazine, a reporter for the Washington Star and the Bergen Record, and a free-lance writer for many magazines. His reporting took him to six continents and won awards from American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Physics and the New York Publishers Association. See John Tierney's website.