[braingenious]

I have a relative that has fallen into several pyramid schemes and is perennially addicted to so-called “self help” books, spending hundreds of dollars on them per month, every month, for about two decades.

I won’t mince words. It is an embarrassing addiction. I often feel secondhand embarrassment when I interact with them. The level of naïveté required is astronomical, but somehow there it is.

It is also one of the funniest phenomenons to see on this website, because it’s not just acceptable here, or even just popular here, but apparently a critical part of the culture to the extent that weird articles about dealing with ~Being super smart~ or ~Optimizing your life~ make it to the front page on a nearly daily basis, beating hundreds of submissions every day.

I am happy to see that people are being critical of it today though!