John Tierney

John Tierney has been a New York Times journalist for more than 20 years. He writes a column, Findings, for the paper’s “Science” section, and he previously authored its TierneyLab blog. He is also the author of the New York Times best-seller, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. An excerpt, “Do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue?” ran in the Times Magazine, and the book was named one of Amazon’s “Best Books of 2011.” He believes that self-control and willpower function analogously to muscles, so willpower, while it can be exhausted from overuse, is generally strengthened through exercise. Publisher’s Weekly praised the book as “a very fine work” that is “clear and succinct” as well as “based on solid research,” and President Obama altered his daily schedule in accordance with the principles it laid out.

Best-Selling Author. In addition to Willpower, Tierney is also the author of The Best-Case Scenario Handbook (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 (1999).

From 2005–2006, he was a columnist on the Times Op-Ed page, before which he wrote a column about New York, “The Big City,” that ran in the magazine and the “Metro” section from 1994–2002. He also wrote the Political Points column for the Washington bureau. He writes often about social sciences and 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.