I agree entirely. There's lots of great advice in the post. Many things are logistically very difficult to study, and in general, "happiness" is a tough variable to quantify.
Advice like "perhaps you could consider spending your money to live closer to work" doesn't require citation. Nor does "self-promotion works". I go to my peers and family and ask for advice on problems and decisions and I'm not looking for citations but their advice best on their life experience. In no way am I diminishing this.
However, A cheap chair and mattress may end up costing you 10-20x in doctor's bills. is purporting fact. It looks to the casual observer that this is backed by some study. Using numbers implies something has been measured. Yet there is no citation. This 'fact' may be read, repeated, regurgitated and enter in to folklore, when in fact likely this is someone just proffering their opinion.
This is actually harmful and just encourages the kind of "common sense or wisdom" that the original question was trying to avoid.
Yes and, perhaps not clearly, I said that in mentioning the silliness of being quantitive about it and in the summary remark - though maybe not putting enough emphasis on it - stating something as if it is scientific fact when it's just pulled out of your ass is not only misleading, it's bordering on plain evil. No better way to a. mislead and b. discredit science.
Advice like "perhaps you could consider spending your money to live closer to work" doesn't require citation. Nor does "self-promotion works". I go to my peers and family and ask for advice on problems and decisions and I'm not looking for citations but their advice best on their life experience. In no way am I diminishing this.
However, A cheap chair and mattress may end up costing you 10-20x in doctor's bills. is purporting fact. It looks to the casual observer that this is backed by some study. Using numbers implies something has been measured. Yet there is no citation. This 'fact' may be read, repeated, regurgitated and enter in to folklore, when in fact likely this is someone just proffering their opinion.
This is actually harmful and just encourages the kind of "common sense or wisdom" that the original question was trying to avoid.