this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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No Stupid Questions

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Rob is blowing a whistle, over and over.

Bob: "Why are you blowing that whistle, Rob?"

Rob: "To keep the dragons away."

Bob: "I see no dragons."

Rob: "It works!"

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[–] justlookingfordragon@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

"You just turned 100 today - what's your secret to a long life?" - No matter what the answer will be, I guarantee you that there are millions of people in the world who do the exact same and still die young. But yeah, of course aunt Margharet only managed to live an entire century because she ate three cans of surströmming every week, no doubt. Genetics, healthcare and lifestyle have nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.


Edit/addendum: Weird specific example

Something similar was also my no.1 pet peeve on reddit whenever people argued about how the Blood Moon works in Breath of the Wild. It's an in-game timer of roughly 3 hours, but the game does not tell you about it, nor does it display the timer, and back when the game code wasn't cracked yet, there were a LOT of outrageously weird theories about how to allegedly make the Blood Moon appear.

So you just "made" a BM happen by running straight into a wall for 3 hours? Yes you got a BM, but not "because" you were running into a wall for 3 hours, but because the effing timer was up. The game does not care for WHAT you do in that time.

So you reloaded and ran into a wall again and the BM happened again? It is STILL not because you ran into a wall - you rewinded the effing timer by reloading a save file from before the event you're trying to trigger, and then the timer was up again. (They never bothered to check whether it would happen if they did not try to trigger it with their chosen tactic)

It is really really hard to try and convince these people that they're wrong, because once they're convinced that a specific action yields a specific result, they WILL keep doing it over and over again until it "works" and then see it as proof. But by the same logic you can also throw tomatoes at a wall until it starts to rain and then claim that the rain happened because you just threw 547 tomatoes against a wall. And then you continue to throw tomatoes because it "worked" last time ... and if it doesn't rain then you just didn't throw enough tomatoes yet.

[–] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The real secret is to not die.

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[–] Nemo@midwest.social 5 points 10 months ago

Technically, eating three cans a week is lifestyle.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Blood Moons will also happen if the system is running low on RAM. The BM resets a bunch of stuff, like monster spawns, and since the game is no longer tracking that you killed a particular set of bokoblins or whatever there is more free RAM. This is called a panic blood moon, is very rare, and difficult to force.

https://zeldamods.org/wiki/Blood_moon

[–] justlookingfordragon@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

A common misconception is that blood moons help replenish system memory by resetting enemy kill flags. This is however total nonsense, because enemy kill flags are just GameData flags, and all GameData flags are loaded at bootup and stay in memory forever

From the exact same source you just posted.

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[–] lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world 37 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The most prevalent has got to be, "We prayed and -insert name- recovered - it's a miracle!

And if the person dies: "It's the will of God."

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

When doctors save a person, "God saved this person!"

No, it was Dr. Jakobs but go on

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[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 31 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, or the post hoc fallacy, in general.

Basically in OP's case, I did this and something did or didn't happen. Therefore, what I did caused that something to happen or not happen.

Another comment used a survivorship bias with people that survived when others died or just living longer than other people. That's also an example of the post hoc fallacy. The idea that the survivor did something that caused them to live isn't necessarily true. They couldn't just got lucky.

It's also the foundational fallacy that connects the president to economic outcomes. Ask any economist: the president can't control the economy, and his influence is severely limited.

[–] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Placebo buttons.

Some appliances like elevators or traffic crossings cycle automatically, but they still have (non-functional) buttons. If the buttons are removed, people complain that the wait is too long. Let them push a button while they wait, and they'll think it's much quicker.

[–] Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Some of these actually do have an effect, but it's difficult to impossible for a person to know whether this particular one is a placebo button or not.

This is especially the case with elevator close door buttons. Those buttons are always hooked up, because they are needed during emergency operation with the fireman's key. They are sometimes programmed to cycle the doors marginally faster under normal circumstances, but more often aren't.

Also, some of the traffic crossing buttons don't make the walk cycle come sooner, but they occasionally are needed to insert a walk cycle at all, because some intersections don't trigger a walk cycle unless the button has been pressed.

[–] lunarul@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Also, some of the traffic crossing buttons don't make the walk cycle come sooner, but they occasionally are needed to insert a walk cycle at all, because some intersections don't trigger a walk cycle unless the button has been pressed.

Some? In my area all the lights require a button press for a walk cycle. Even if the traffic lights turn red for the cars (e.g. in an intersection for cross-traffic), the pedestrian lights will stay red too unless the button was pressed.

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[–] Usul_00_@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think you have the elevator example crossed. My random testing suggests the door open button always works. The close button sometimes is as you say, just to make people feel like they have a measure of control.

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[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Herbal supplements, magnets, crystals, horoscopes...

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[–] NewPerspective@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Cargo cult mentality?

Like how island natives after WWII would build ritual airstrips to summon American cargo planes.

[–] cameron_vale@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I X and it rained; for X in:

  1. Washed the car
  2. Hung out the washing
  3. Watered the garden
[–] Archpawn@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)
  1. Rain dance And we're not clear on this one, but:
  2. Seeding clouds for rain
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[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago

I always liked the expression "asteroid insurance"

[–] threeduck@aussie.zone 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

"Specious reasoning" is all I can think of. That's what Lisa Simpsons says when Homer thinks the Bear Patrol is working like a charm (because there's not a bear in sight).

[–] Sway_Chameleon@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's a logical fallacy called "post hoc, ergo propter hoc". The assumption that an event is caused/prevented by something that preceded it.

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[–] charlytune@mander.xyz 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Taking echinacia (sp?) to get rid of a cold. I've given up trying to tell my friends they're wasting their money because they believe it works, because they start feeling better, and won't be told that that was going to happen anyway.

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[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] databender@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Hahaha... ahem haha. Love this.

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

All superstitions. Lucky charms (not the cereal). Curses (eg. Everytime I cheer for this sport team they lose, but they win when I don't cheer, so it must be a curse).

[–] cameron_vale@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's like some kind of low hanging fruit convention.

Give me one that all the normal, smart people like you and me are guilty of.

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Wait but I'm not smart :x

Also ask any sports or sports fan and they will give you a list of them.

As an example, there's something called the "caster curse" which I'm pretty sure originates from esports but I don't see why it couldn't apply to sports as well. It's the belief that you can curse an individual/team by praising them (usually happens in real time as the game is being cast). Eg. "Person X never misses those!" Person X then proceeds to miss 3 times in a row.

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

As a more generalized version of the "caster curse", a lot of people don't like to talk about something that is either very likely or very unlikely to happen because they are afraid it will "jinx it".

Example

Friend A: I don't know why you're so anxious, you did way better than the other contestants. This contest is in the bag!

You: Stop talking. You're going to jinx it.

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[–] DreamySweet@ani.social 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tapping the top of a can of soda to prevent it from making a mess when you open it.

[–] digger@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This totally works. If you make a mess... You didn't tap it enough. /s

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like how dogs chase the mailman away.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Okay, so the other day we were doing yardwork and my weird cat was hanging out with us. A dude rode by on his bike and my cat took off after him. He turned around and came back, got off his bike, sat down on our porch laughing and told us "No one is going to believe me. I've never been chased by a cat before. I've been chased by dogs, but... I had to tell someone." I mean that's our cat. I can believe it. But it was pretty funny to watch. I wish I'd gotten it on film.

[–] cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world 4 points 10 months ago

All the rituals that baseball players perform.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)
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