I really don't see the point of studying statistical correlations between cat videos and heart disease. The way I see it, these statistical correlations give y

I really don't see the point of studying statistical correlations between cat videos and heart disease. The way I see it, these statistical correlations give you clues about where to start looking for mechanisms of causation, but as long as there is no causal mechanism, there's just nothing there. -- It's like a detective forming a theory of a crime so they know where to start looking for evidence. But the evidence is what a court is going to need to convict someone. If you look purely at correlations, I bet that almost any psychological condition correlates with almost any other, to the extent that they are all caused by an unobserved outside factor. Let's call that factor "having a shitty life". A shitty life probably involves having a boring job, which makes you more likely to procrastinate. But a shitty life will also make it more likely that you'd be an alcoholic, drug-addict, suffer from depression and/or anxiety, etc etc