A.M. Neel is a writer based in Sun Valley, Idaho, who specializes in making complex scientific topics accessible without lying about what the research actually shows.

With an engineering background and deep skepticism of easy answers, Andy writes narrative nonfiction that combines rigorous research with dark humor. He approaches topics by reading actual studies (not press releases), checking whether findings replicate, and refusing to oversell conclusions.

His book Defective by Design: The Stupid History of The Science of Measuring Intelligence examined 120 years of IQ testing and concluded most of it was nonsense. His latest, A Brief History of Trying (And Failing) to Science Our Way to Happiness, applies the same skeptical lens to happiness research and reaches uncomfortable conclusions: pursuing happiness doesn't work, most interventions fail, and the Finns rank #1 by not trying.

When not writing, Andy teaches skiing (helping people not die on the mountain) and tennis (explaining why they're not the next Roger Federer). His students have learned that ski lessons include both parallel turns and philosophical tangents about hedonic adaptation.

He's been described as "Bill Bryson meets Mary Roach with an engineering degree and clinical depression." He has a talent for making you laugh while explaining why everything you believed is wrong, and for humanizing scientists through their contradictions and failures.

Andy wrote his happiness book while going through divorce and depression, which seems either perfectly appropriate or completely inappropriate depending on your perspective. He lives in Sun Valley with realistic expectations, occasional kalsarikännit evenings, and a belief that good enough is actually good enough.

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