Why dieting is difficult.....................

 When dopamine signaling reaches a certain level you increase learning dramatically to the point where something becomes habitual. We have a name for this: addiction. Addiction has a terrifying sound to it, but it’s just the point where something learned is so powerful it can overwhelm constructive behavior. . . .

Next time you’re “hungry”, ask yourself: “Would I eat broccoli?” If not, you’re probably not really hungry. This will make you a leaner person. No, I didn’t say happier. I said, “leaner.”

-More neuroscience on the subject here

About "the long tail"..........................

 A takeaway from that is that no matter what you’re doing, you should be comfortable with a lot of stuff not working. It’s normal. This is true for companies, which need to learn how to fail well. It’s true for investors, who need to understand both the normal tail mechanics of diversification and the importance of time horizon, since long-term returns accrue in bunches. And it’s important to realize that jobs and even entire careers might take a few attempts before you find a winning groove That’s how these things work.

-Morgan Housel, as extracted from here

magical thinking........................

 “The farrago of magical thinking, technocratic hubris, ideological delusion, self-dealing and sheer shortsightedness that produced the crisis in Sri Lanka implicates both the country’s political leadership and advocates of so-called sustainable agriculture.”

-as culled from this Matt Ridely post on "eco-extremism"

clumsy........................

 It also seems that, where a mass movement can either persuade or coerce, it usually chooses the latter.  Persuasion is clumsy and its result uncertain.

-Eric Hoffer

compromise........................

 Compromise is another word that carries shades of weakness, vacillation, betrayal of ideals, surrender of moral principles.  In the old culture, when virginity was a virtue, one referred to a woman's being "compromised."  The work is generally regarded as ethically unsavory and ugly. . . .

     A free and open society is an on-going conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises—which then become the start for the continuation of conflict, compromise, and on ad infinitum.  Control of power is based on compromise in our Congress and among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.  A society devoid of compromise is totalitarian.  If I had to define a free and open society in one word, the word would be "compromise."

-Saul D. Alinsky