When an explanation feels unusually satisfying, ask:
What intermediate steps did the story skip? The missing steps often contain the part you can actually change.
Don’t stop at the label
Climate change.
Tendinopathy.
Burnout.
ADHD.
Inflation.
Social media.
Overtraining.
All are useful categories.
But categories can become intellectual stopping points.
Once we say:
“It’s overtraining.”
we can feel as if we've explained something.
We haven't.
The useful questions begin afterward:
What increased?
What decreased?
What changed first?
Which mechanism connects those events?
Where could the chain have gone differently?
Naming a phenomenon helps us recognize it.
Understanding the chain helps us intervene.
The label tells you what shelf the problem belongs on; the mechanism tells you where to put your hands.