Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. ❤️

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

🍔  💀  📸  😭  🕳️  🤠  🎬  🥔

Things That Don’t Work. For instance: “Fixing relationship problems by having a baby.” Also: “multivitamins” and “wanting to be liked.”

Comments  10

Sort by: thread — thread . latest . faves

David Nir

Non-fiction books? Come on.

Carleton A

Seriously. The more I read of this the more this feels just like a list of things the author doesn't like.

Reply in this thread

Diana

Especially with "How much do we really retain?" seemingly justifying their position. If quantity of retention is the determinant of worthiness then most of our actions and experience are pointless.
EYEROLL

Tom Robertson

Merlin Mann’s Wisdom Project is a much better version of this kind of thing.

https://gist.github.com/merlinmann/09af1df28d76ba028b0999f66945fd61

Wayne Bremser

I kept scrolling in the hopes of seeing "listicles" on this listicle

Tra H

The first thing on the list is acupuncture which I always just assumed was quackery but the wiki link to the efficacy and the study it references says there's a high or strong certainty acupuncture is beneficial for shoulder pain (which I have) and fibromyalgia. So... should I try acupuncture?

Edith ZimmermanMOD

I enjoyed this list for various reasons, but I am a fan of acupuncture, for what it’s worth. So, I’d say try it! Nothing to lose, as far as I can tell.

Tra H

Yeah I think I'm going to give it a shot because if nothing else it seems like it would just feel really good which I don't think studies like this can capture accurately.

I'm sure acupuncture isn't going to cure the underlying cause of the pains but if it feels good and makes me forget about them for a couple of days then it'd be worth it.

Edith ZimmermanMOD

The first time I tried acupuncture I loved it, I think in part because I really liked the practitioner, and she asked me questions that it felt cathartic to respond (at length) to, which itself felt like therapy. To be paid attention to! Also I obviously have no idea if this is relevant to your situation, but I really liked the book Healing Back Pain, by John Sarno. It’s nutty-sounding but resonated with me.

Reply in this thread

Duncan Keefe

I got a few items in and the author mentions that they came up with their own version of Myers-Briggs…which doesn't work.

Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.

Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!