"The fact that this pattern is so old and so widespread suggests that it is not a myth." Or, I suppose, it could suggest just the opposite -- that it makes it

"The fact that this pattern is so old and so widespread suggests that it is not a myth." Or, I suppose, it could suggest just the opposite -- that it makes it all the more likely to be a myth... At the minimum it suggests that it is something which is worth a good ol' look at the empirical evidence to determine it's truthiness. I mean, DHH isn't making an empirically testable claim either, but this seems like the kind of thing that in this day and age there ought to be studies about...