Nutrition science is on fairly sound footing today, I think hopefully to myself as I squirt 15 ml of MCT oil into my morning coffee. The point I took away is t

Nutrition science is on fairly sound footing today, I think hopefully to myself as I squirt 15 ml of MCT oil into my morning coffee. The point I took away is that scientific disciplines act like they're sound long before they actually are, so you can't evaluate the soundness of a science based on its own confident pronouncements. Certainly the history of cognitive science involved making strong claims before they were valid. While some parts of the brain, like the early visual system, were understood correctly early on, the role of the cortex in cognition is still poorly understood. That doesn't stop people from confidently promoting mental disciplines to optimize learning, memory, or happiness. And we should be skeptical.