I get it. You’re in pain. Exercise and nutrition are not your #1 priorities in life. Health Care is often a dystopian nightmare. You need help, but you don’t know who to trust. The system is evidently *the* problem, but you don’t have time for a revolution.
Know what sounds nice? Answers Guy. Answers Guy has… all the answers! He tells it like it is, calls out the dysfunction you are experiencing, and speaks from the heart, unlike those stuck up so-called experts who haven’t helped you.
He’s got this amazing website with compelling videos that reveals the terrible truth: you have been lied to.
But good news: Answers Guy has got this one neat trick that’s going to solve *all your problems.* And yes, your doctor hates it. Answers Guy is a doctor anyway! What’s the catch? No catch, just 3 easy payments of $99.95, and your own personal revolution can begin.
The rabbit hole is deep, and the secret world that awaits is inviting. Wanna go for a ride?
…
Magic legumes. Miracle potions. One. Neat. Trick. What is going on?
The desire for simplicity in an increasingly complex world. A world that is so frustratingly complex that it drives people to seek alternative narratives and solutions that, even if complete and utter BS, at least offer an oasis of comfort and solidarity… for a while.
Science primarily depends on two things: objective truth, and falsifiability. I want to focus on falsifiability, because a skilled charlatan can wriggle their way out of objective truth fairly easily. “It’s impossible to know for sure,” they can say. Scientific truths are probabilistic, meaning they leave open the possibility of being wrong. “It’s impossible to know for sure” is an unfalsifiable statement: it can’t be proven right or wrong.
Falsifiability is harder. Falsifiability is the cornerstone of evidence-based science, especially in the modern world. It requires that you try to prove your own ideas wrong, exhaustively, before reluctantly accepting that they may have some merit. Then, you submit your results to peer review, so that other imperfect humans with egos and agendas can do their best to tear your work down. If your idea makes it past this hurdle, it’s halfway to somewhere. More testing. It will take years. A real ego crushing journey.
It requires humility, which is the kryptonite of magical thinking.
Can your theories be proven wrong via evidence produced by repeatable tests? Are you open to being wrong?
Someone selling magic beans will run away from this kind of talk, because their confidence is derived from their genius existing in isolation, absent from the scrutiny of other experts, and the absolute, black and white thinking and speaking that can be so persuasive to the vulnerable. It’s the primary appeal. I think it’s why I enjoy watching Family Guy and other animated shows. Simple colors, clean boundaries, no nuance. Ok the jokes have some nuance, but the imagery and sounds are always crystal clear; overly simplified to elicit a satisfying experience in the viewer. Now go to commercials and sell me something.
Real science, like your real life, has a lot of nuance. A lot of ifs, buts, exceptions, asterisks, corrections, sometimes a lot of excitement and then… another wrinkle, it’s more complicated than we thought. And because of all of this, a general humility grounded in the history of the many colossal errors made by the greatest minds. “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
So who can you trust? Ask better questions. Who presents their solutions with context and nuance? Who admits that much of what’s considered “best practices” in the Fitness space has not been rigorously tested, at best is based off of observational studies with no control, is often adapted and misinterpreted so much that it no longer resembles the original work (Hi Tabata pull-ups!), or are simply just anecdotes (“I tested this on myself!”).
Who acknowledges the historical record of work done by other researchers, the complexity of the world and your life, and admits that their tools are imperfect? That they may in part or in full, be wrong?
This may sound unappealing. You want a leader, an authority, something who talks in compelling and comforting ways like Answers Guy. I know, it’s what we’ve all been taught to believe, that we need a strong authority figure to lead us, but you don’t. You need to make informed decisions about your health, not a hero.
When it comes to your life choices, *you* are the authority. When you choose to trust someone to lead you in whatever niche you need help with, check their knowledge against other competing ideas, check their references and reviews, and if you are still uncertain, check their humility to see if they are willing to admit how much they still don’t know. You have enough time to do this and, even if less comforting, you deserve the truth.
Coach Mauricio