<p>So I have a lot of conflicts with my parents. One of them of course, happens to be that one of my parents doesn't understand science at all, so he doesn't understand phrases such as "CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION." And I know that however much I lecture to him about it, he's never going to get it. Oh, and fuzzy logic too. Something beneficial during some periods of time may be detrimental during other periods of time.</p>
<p>The other phrase I keep on reiterating is "JUST BECAUSE IT WORKS FOR YOU DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT WORKS FOR SOMEONE ELSE. ESPECIALLY IF THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS DIFFERENT VALUES THAN YOU/IS FAR MORE LIBERAL THAN YOU ARE/ETC"</p>
<p>And my parents keep on telling me to sleep, exercise, etc... Yes, I'm aware that the research indicates that those who sleep 8 hours per day do the best academically, but only in HUGE research studies that measure GPA with hours of sleep. Of course, that research doesn't apply as much to me as it does to others - since the research studies usually measure students who already have far less homework than free time - so when they sleep more, they're usually cutting back on something other than homework - such as computer games. </p>
<p>Obviously, we don't know how sleep correlates with academic performance in highly rigorous settings like say, Caltech (where many students get really low amounts of sleep and still do quite well). Or when the student tries to study as much as possible in the day and has no other activities. Moreover, we really don't know if 8 hours of consecutive sleep is better or less hours of sleep and intermittent napping periods. Some of you may have heard of polyphasic sleep. While there is no rigorous research on it (yet), it still demonstrates that "focus, attention span, etc." are not a linear function of # of hours slept.</p>
<p>And even with that all done, one must consider the VARIANCE, not just the AVERAGES. Obviously, people gain weight on average when they consume more calories. But as <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,1866485,00.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,1866485,00.html</a> demonstrates, the VARIATION is more important to consider than the AVERAGE. </p>
<p>I also detest the "I have more experience than you in life" argument. Yeah, they had more experience living in a world totally different from that of today's. Adaptability beats hard-encoded experience. If F makes an "appeal to experience" argument to S, then it only will work when (a) the environment that ensures the validity of the argument doesn't change and (b) when F and S are sufficiently similar enough in values and desires in the point being argued (AND, when the person doesn't conflate correlation with causation). Neither of those apply in my case. I trust the experience of others over the Internet more. And in any case, I can afford to make mistakes. </p>
<p>Rawr. With that all said, none of their advice is ever original. Go exercise, go learn to drive, go eat foods only when hot (has anyone noticed that Asian parents are particularly obsessed with this?), etc. And whenever I indicate the remote possibility of even getting a girlfriend, they then start barraging me with more words I don't care about. Because I'm different, and my values are different from theirs, and I don't operationalize "success" by the same standards that they do. It makes me wonder - have they ever considered the possibility that I've heard it all 9999 times already?</p>
<p>Okay, I was angry. But anyways, I'll let it through here. I'll end up looking like an idiot, but it's always nicer to do that at a forum than anywhere else. ;)</p>