[BoxedEmpathy]

Agreed. It's opinion and unscientific.

The article fallaciously overstates the cognitive significance of shopping lists by misapplying general psychological concepts to a mundane habit. It relies on false cause and appeal to authority, conflating a standard compensatory memory mechanism with inherent intelligence. The author generalizes behavior, ignoring alternative motivators like memory deficits or anxiety. Furthermore, the piece lacks precise citations and improperly retrofits foundational research—such as academic note-taking studies—to fit its narrative. Ultimately, while it references factual cognitive capacity limits, the core claim that list-making signifies "sharper thinking" remains an unsupported editorial opinion rather than empirical science. Any article that contains "Psychology suggests" isn't worth reading.

HN isn't what it once was.

[Apocryphon]

HN has always been like this

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...