Image via Complex Original
We grow up hearing a lot of the same advice over and over—but just because everybody says something doesn't mean it's true.
In fact, according to a recent Quora thread, a lot of the platitudes we hear are popular because they're comforting, not because they're accurate.
"What are some sweetly comforting things people say that are factually incorrect?" asked one user.
There are over 100 answers, which suggests we're being fed a lot of BS on a daily basis. Here are four of the best ones:
1. All you need is love
Sorry, everyone, but The Beatles were wrong.
Nine Inch Nails were way more accurate when they sang, "Love is not enough."
That's why the advice "you'll be fine, you love each other" pisses off Rachel Binfield. Statements like these "brush over problems and feelings like they're nothing important," she said.
Plus, as author Mark Manson has pointed out, it takes a hell of a lot more than love to make a relationship work. If you don't know how to have a healthy relationship, love won't get you very far.
2. Grades don't matter
Vaibhav Pahwa called bullsh*t on the common reassurance that grades don't make a difference in your future.
"Why are 'good students' always getting better treatment by professors?" they asked. "Not to mention internships and scholarships for only the top students in class."
Sure, there are people who don't succeed in school (or even go to school) but succeed in life. But it never exactly hurt anyone to be at the top of their class.
3. Practice makes perfect
According to Becca Makin, this saying glosses over the fact that you can practice something forever and never master it.
"Practice accounts for something, but sometimes people genuinely can't improve no matter how hard they practice," they said. "A man who's missing three of his four limbs is not going to dunk a basketball."
"Practice makes progress" may be a more accurate saying.
4. It's always darkest just before the dawn
We'd all like to think that when things seem like they can't get worse, they're about to get better. But Ian Morgan pointed out that the physical phenomenon this saying is based on isn't even real.
"The joys of atmospheric effects guarantee that there is a gradual lightening of the sky as dawn approaches. It is darkest at the point the sun is blocked by the largest amount of the Earth," they explained. "That is: It is darkest at the halfway point between sunset and sunrise."
This may seem completely off-topic, but it has a deeper meaning.
"You don't go from down-trodden to victorious in one easy step. It's a process of small wins, small victories, that eventually lead to success," they wrote.
Unfortunately, "it's always darkest right between sunset and sunrise" doesn't have the same ring to it. In fact, there is zero correlation between how much ring a saying has and how true it is.
Remember that next time you're convinced you're approaching dawn, or perfection, or whatever the subject of the platitude may be. It may sound nice, but that doesn't make it right.