5 ms·
This is some clever self-parody. The outer wrapper: science-flavored with no actual science. It warms you up with feel-good nonsense designed to flatter the l
by bcoates 11y ago
This is some clever self-parody.
The outer wrapper: science-flavored with no actual science.
It warms you up with feel-good nonsense designed to flatter the listener for being a responsible rich person and/or smarter than all those foolish poseurs with their fancy cars and houses.
Then telling you to avoid overt advertising because (the article claims) it just flatters your ego to trick you into buying something, followed by ...
New Age hokum repackaged as Buddhism lecture you're going to nod politely at as you scroll through without reading.
... and the punchline is an affiliate ad to buy enlightenment for $12
p.s. Overt advertising is a way of buying a piece of culture, you don't literally need to believe it for it to work so don't be smug if you don't "fall" for it. Affiliate marketing like this is a direct assault on your brain. This is the evil advertising you should be ignoring, not the "expensive stuff is expensive" ads they use as examples.
- gradstudent 11y agoYeah, I got the same impression. The article is vapid to begin and then it takes a turn for the worse with it's bullshit Buddhist propaganda.
- markatkinson 11y agoHa, agreed. It is one of those articles where as you are reading red flags start shooting up with an ever increasing frequency till eventually you are 2/3rd's of the way through and feel like you've been hoodwinked. I am not against meditation though...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tempodox 11y agoThe blog title, “Calm Science” says it all. Whenever I read a title that contains the word “science” (especially in funny combinations like this one), I get very, very suspicious.
- lsc 11y agoI'm pretty amused that you are downvoted here. I guess you phrased it too confrontationaly? or maybe something else. Hacker news is weird, sometimes. But yeah, affiliate marketing is... well, it's important to be aware of who is paying the people who write what you are reading, and that is usually way less clear with affiliate marketing than with conventional advertising.
- dwaltrip 11y agoCan you respond to any of the actual statements in the article? I grant you a lack of citations in the post, but my understanding is that much of the science stuff (meditation, will power, conforming to those around us, effects of advertising, etc) is fairly well established. His advice is not vague, and many people have found positive benefits with those or similar strategies. Sure, there is some irony in the affiliate link to a book (it is a legitimate meditation book that is considered useful), but it doesn't affect the veracity of his statements.
- mercer 11y agoMy alarm bells usually start ringing when I see too much bolded text, capitalized text, or too many short sentences. That said, I have to admit I do agree enough with the gist of the article, and the tips at the end for Headspace and Mindfulness in Plain English are decent. Using Headspace and researching/practicing mindfulness have been very beneficial to me. Which kind of makes me feel worse about this thing as a whole. It just feels wrong.
- jacobolus 11y agoI suspect there’s a marketing self-help book somewhere which recommends adding bold text a few times per paragraph to keep readers with short attention spans engaged.
- 1812Overture 11y agoMy experience looking at ROI on direct mail pieces shows that this totally works.