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If Placebos Work So Well, Why Not Prescribe Sugar Pills for Everything?

https://www.derekthompson.org/p/tsmp-life-is-made-of-beliefs
3•herbertl•4mo ago

Comments

leakycap•4mo ago
Couldn't we say most homeopathic medication is akin to a placebo?

But to answer your question posed in the title, it's the Hippocratic oath.

JumpCrisscross•4mo ago
Because medicine works better, this is literally how we do drug trials.
dazc•4mo ago
In place of Metformin for diabetes, it could be counter-productive?
vunderba•4mo ago
From the article

> More subtly, doctors can fudge the language by asking patients if they consent to something like “try different medicines, including placebos” to retain the power of self-fulfilling improvement.

Unless your name is Charlie Kelly [1] - that ain't going to work.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2999352

Bender•4mo ago
Placebos may help for psychosomatic issues but I would suggest using something that tastes like medicine and not promote sugar any further. Some of the binders used in pharma drugs taste like medicine.
tjr•4mo ago
Yes please. Aggravatingly, so-called nutrition experts seem to be all over the map with their guidance, ranging from recommending eating only vegetables to eating only meat and all sorts of stops in between, but it seems pretty much everyone even remotely credible agrees that we should eat less sugar.

Do you have a mathematically attractive face?

https://www.doimog.com
1•a_n•2m ago•1 comments

Code only says what it does

https://brooker.co.za/blog/2020/06/23/code.html
1•logicprog•7m ago•0 comments

The success of 'natural language programming'

https://brooker.co.za/blog/2025/12/16/natural-language.html
1•logicprog•7m ago•0 comments

The Scriptovision Super Micro Script video titler is almost a home computer

http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-scriptovision-super-micro-script.html
2•todsacerdoti•8m ago•0 comments

Discovering the "original" iPhone from 1995 [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cip9w-UxIc
1•fortran77•9m ago•0 comments

Psychometric Comparability of LLM-Based Digital Twins

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14264
1•PaulHoule•10m ago•0 comments

SidePop – track revenue, costs, and overall business health in one place

https://www.sidepop.io
1•ecaglar•13m ago•1 comments

The Other Markov's Inequality

https://www.ethanepperly.com/index.php/2026/01/16/the-other-markovs-inequality/
1•tzury•15m ago•0 comments

The Cascading Effects of Repackaged APIs [pdf]

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6055034
1•Tejas_dmg•17m ago•0 comments

Lightweight and extensible compatibility layer between dataframe libraries

https://narwhals-dev.github.io/narwhals/
1•kermatt•19m ago•0 comments

Haskell for all: Beyond agentic coding

https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding
2•RebelPotato•23m ago•0 comments

Dorsey's Block cutting up to 10% of staff

https://www.reuters.com/business/dorseys-block-cutting-up-10-staff-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-02...
2•dev_tty01•26m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Freenet Lives – Real-Time Decentralized Apps at Scale [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SxNBz1VTE0
1•sanity•27m ago•1 comments

In the AI age, 'slow and steady' doesn't win

https://www.semafor.com/article/01/30/2026/in-the-ai-age-slow-and-steady-is-on-the-outs
1•mooreds•34m ago•1 comments

Administration won't let student deported to Honduras return

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-wont-let-student-deported-honduras-return-2...
1•petethomas•35m ago•0 comments

How were the NIST ECDSA curve parameters generated? (2023)

https://saweis.net/posts/nist-curve-seed-origins.html
2•mooreds•35m ago•0 comments

AI, networks and Mechanical Turks (2025)

https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2025/11/23/ai-networks-and-mechanical-turks
1•mooreds•35m ago•0 comments

Goto Considered Awesome [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UKVEUGEk6Y
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https://carousel-ai.intellisell.ai/
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Implementing Auto Tiling with Just 5 Tiles

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1•todsacerdoti•40m ago•0 comments

Open Challange (Get all Universities involved

https://x.com/i/grok/share/3513b9001b8445e49e4795c93bcb1855
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLK6ixQpQsQ
2•gnabgib•43m ago•0 comments

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https://twitter.com/shivamhwp/status/2020125417995436090
3•shivamhwp•45m ago•0 comments

Toledo Derailment Rescue [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPHh5yHxkfU
1•samsolomon•47m ago•0 comments

War Department Cuts Ties with Harvard University

https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4399812/war-department-cuts-ties-with-harva...
9•geox•51m ago•1 comments

Show HN: LocalGPT – A local-first AI assistant in Rust with persistent memory

https://github.com/localgpt-app/localgpt
4•yi_wang•51m ago•0 comments

A Bid-Based NFT Advertising Grid

https://bidsabillion.com/
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AI readability score for your documentation

https://docsalot.dev/tools/docsagent-score
1•fazkan•1h ago•0 comments

NASA Study: Non-Biologic Processes Don't Explain Mars Organics

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/science-news/2026/02/06/nasa-study-non-biologic-processes-dont-ful...
3•bediger4000•1h ago•2 comments