Not everything is behavioral science

Acronym, title, and expectations

• Many readers were initially confused by “BS” meaning “behavioral science” rather than “bullshit.”
• Several felt the title and opening were clickbait and expected an essay on “bullshit,” not on behavioral science.
• Some asked for a more accurate, less sensational title.

Perceptions of the article and behavioral science

• Multiple commenters found the piece smug, sloppy, and full of under-examined half-truths.
• The article is seen by some as self-serving: an instance of the idea that institutions preserve the problems they exist to solve.
• Others argue that any field tends to see the world through its own lens; this can be either bias or a useful perspective.
• There is concern about the reproducibility crisis and “nudge”/behavioral interventions that don’t pan out long term.
• Defenders say the aim is to highlight overlooked, non-technical solutions and that perception/marketing is often part of “the product,” not an afterthought.

Placebo effect and medical testing

• Several commenters say the article misunderstands placebo: clinical trials subtract placebo to measure drug effects, not because practitioners want to avoid placebo in real treatment.
• One detailed comment notes placebo is malleable and can be enhanced, and that drug developers already implicitly exploit side effects that may amplify perceived efficacy.
• Others stress the difference between testing medicine and treating patients, and compare placebo control to using a naïve baseline in predictive modeling.

Two-dishwasher thought experiment

• The “two dishwashers, never unload” idea draws extensive criticism on space, cost, plumbing, inefficiency, hygiene, and real-world usage patterns.
• Some point out it only fits certain lifestyles, house types, and dish inventories, and often fails under realistic load imbalance.
• Others note aesthetic and psychological reasons to prefer clean cabinets over appliances as storage.
• A minority argue it can work in specific contexts (small households, new construction) and that people may overestimate the waste vs convenience.

Constraints, thought experiments, and “outside the box”

• The candle/boiling-water-at-altitude example is widely attacked as contrived: if constraints are not clearly specified, any “solution” becomes possible and trivial.
• Critics say meaningful problem-solving requires accepting reasonable constraints; otherwise, “thinking outside the box” becomes empty wordplay.
• Supporters respond that the point is precisely to notice variables assumed fixed (like altitude) and consider changing them.

Solar panels aside

• Some report very high neighborhood uptake of residential solar, suggesting engineering advances clearly did change behavior.
• Others, even in very sunny areas, see slow adoption and resistant homeowners, indicating non-technical barriers.
• Leasing models and contracts attached to houses are cited as deterrents; ownership vs leasing trade-offs are debated.

Meta: disciplines as lenses & limits of rationality

• One thread generalizes that every field offers a framework (behavioral, architectural, historical, logical) that can be applied broadly; the challenge is picking the right “hammer.”
• Another subthread discusses how much cognition is unconscious (e.g., juggling), and how this complicates rational analysis and self-assessment of expertise.
• There is debate over how far rational decomposition scales to complex systems, and whether some domains make it impossible to know when one is wrong.