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Star Wars is nonsense too but it makes people happy.

Nonsense spreads not just because of apathy.


Star Wars isn't interpreted as a cure though, which is where new age stuff can be borderline dangerous sometimes.


Every work of fiction is "nonsense", but they still have value as entertainment and story-telling. The difference is that fictional works are understood by the reader/viewer to be fictional.

The problem with nonsense that purports to be true is that there's usually a scam attached to it, to separate people from their money. Fictional stories don't have this: everyone knows they're fictional before they spend their money on it, and they know what to expect from it (i.e. pure entertainment, not a cure for whatever ails you).


You leave my space wizards out of this!


And you actually pointed out why those two things are different.

We understand Star Wars is space wizards. New-agers do not understand that their beliefs are mostly bogus.


Luckily for us software development is a completely rational discipline, and is immune to fads, fashions, rhetoric, snake oil, and beliefs with no empirical foundation.


There's a difference between the practice of software development and the effects of software on the world.


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