this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
111 points (93.0% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35398 readers
1287 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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!"

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] justlookingfordragon@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (8 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 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The real secret is to not die.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Nougat@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

So you just “made” a BM happen ...

Poop goes in the potty.

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

Technically, eating three cans a week is lifestyle.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 30 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.

[–] ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 29 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I can't believe nobody has said religion. All of it. Praying to god being a prime example.

[–] Chobbes@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You know, I always used to think praying was incredibly stupid, and I’m sure plenty of people treat it in a way that’s… not really in the right spirit / ineffective? But recently it’s started to make a lot more sense to me. If you’re praying to god in an effort to directly influence the real world I think you’re misguided… If you think of prayer as a time to consider what you’re grateful for and what you want for the future, it actually seems like a really sensible mental health practice. To be clear, I am and always have been an atheist, and I don’t particularly like religions as a whole, but it seems like some of these things I’ve always found odd (like prayer) stem from something that could actually be reasonable and helpful but got corrupted by some game of telephone and people not understanding metaphors lol.

[–] sh00g@kbin.social 14 points 10 months ago

Prayer can be a powerful self meditation tool. It's effectively a way to organize your thoughts by talking to yourself. What is not helpful is sending "thoughts and prayers" every time something bad happens without actually attempting to do anything to address the problem at hand.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Herbal supplements, magnets, crystals, horoscopes...

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 24 points 10 months ago (2 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 18 points 10 months ago (2 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.

[–] 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've never encountered a traffic crossing that cycles when there's no one waiting.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Cargo cult mentality?

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

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] PlasterAnalyst@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

"that's the way we've always done it" at any job ever.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 13 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. Rain dance And we're not clear on this one, but:
  2. Seeding clouds for rain
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago

I always liked the expression "asteroid insurance"

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 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).

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

The classic Superstition in the Pigeon study by B. F. Skinner back in 1948 is always a good thing to read when this subject comes up.

Otherwise something awful might happen.

[–] 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.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Froyn@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Average person Buying or Selling stock has an impact on the price of the stock.

[–] LapGoat@pawb.social 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

yeah I do, when I buy the stock goes down when I sell the stock goes up

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] charlytune@mander.xyz 7 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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] 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 (3 children)

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

[–] ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

Pretty sure they showed on Mythbusters that tapping the side of the can is actually much more effective. The reason is that bubbles form all around the edges (and top) of the can and they cause the massive bubbling up when the can opens.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

and if you make an even bigger mess... you tapped too hard

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

Sounds like how dogs chase the mailman away.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world 4 points 10 months ago

All the rituals that baseball players perform.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›