What popular product do you think is modern day snakeoil?

Majority of the "AI inside" software and solutions. It's in a bubble and everyone is throwing crap to a wall hoping it sticks.
- "AI" is the new "blockchain". It's a solution looking for a solid problem to tackle, with some niche applications
  
  I mean, at least Ai has SOME useful applications, the blockchain was just wasting energy for some numbers.
  
  I just wish people had long enough memories to see the cycle for terms like these. Some new word catches vogue, companies fall over themselves trying to find ways to implement them for shareholders and consumers who have no idea what they actually represent. As that fades, a new term arises.. it's sad.
  
  Blockchain also has problems its solving I recon the whole not bullshit was a psyop by thr us government cos finances that they couldn't have absolute control over would allow the people to bs free. I recon monero is the best as of present especially since its actually anonymous payments.
- I am so over hearing about AI. It's getting to the point that I can assume anyone dropping the term at work is an idiot that hasn't actually used or utilised it.
  It's this LLM phase. It's super cool and a big jump in AI, but it's honestly not that good. It's a handy tool and one you need to heavily scrutinise beyond basic tasks. Businesses that jumped on it are now seeing the negative effects of thinking it was magic from the future that does everything. The truth is, it's stupid and people need to learn about it, understand it, and be trained in how to use it before it can be effective. It is a tool, not a solution—at least for now anyways.
  
  The truth is, it’s stupid and people need to learn about it, understand it, and be trained in how to use it before it can be effective.
  So, like a hammer. A very expensive, environment-destroying hammer.
  
  I equate an AI to an intern. It's useful for some stuff but if I'm going to attach my name to it I'm going to review it and probably change a lot about it.
  
  There's one good use case for me: produce a bigload of trialcontent in no time for load testing new stuff. "Make 2000 yada yada with column x and z ...". Keeps testing fun and varied while lots of testdata and that it's all nonsense doesn't matter.
  I've found that testing code or formulas with LLM is a 50/50 now. Very often replying "use function blabla() and such snd so" very detailed instructions while this suggested function just doesn't exist at all in certain language asked for... it's still something I'ld try if I'm very stuck tho, never know.
- notice how all of those crypto features were quietly removed from platforms after people realised they were paying millions for some numbers, i think that will happen with Ai
- I just got a notification on my phone telling me that I can chat with my PDF documents. Why the fuck would I want to do that? Do these companies realize that literally no one is asking for this shit? I also saw an ad for a computer mouse that had AI inside it. Whatever that means.
  
  I just got a notification on my phone telling me that I can chat with my PDF documents
  I belive you got that notification but I honestly have no idea what it even means.
  
  Oddly enough, that's one of the few functions I've found the LLMs useful for. Looking through big pdfs for specific information, lots of times "ctrl+f" doesn't do the trick because the exact term I'm looking for doesn't appear. Worse sometimes it's a phrase that could be in there under many synonyms. Using the LLM to find the actual info is pretty nice, it just isn't "AI".
  
  Don’t knock it too quickly. I thought like you but one evening I was a little tipsy and started chatting with a PDF document. Let’s just say things got a heated and now we’re engaged.
- My research was literally on AI back in college. Most AI solutions are just basic algorithms and don't use real AI solutions. There's a huge difference.
- It's even better than that. A lot of companies are taking NVIDIA's pre-built workflows, running their data through them and selling the results as their own AI. "We build proprietary RAG AI!"
- I can't wait to get a Smart AI refrigerator that tells me I have a bunch of food that isn't really in there even when I didn't ask it to.
- Watched a bit of a video of a guy that went to Computex and asked any vendor with AI plastered somewhere what they were doing with it. Most spouted some meaningless word salad and a few literally shrugged.

- As a medical device engineer working in spine - absolutely chiropractors.
  
  What about osteopaths?
  
  A chiropractor 💯 fixed my throwing arm that I had been dealing with for over 10 years. Made me an absolute believer. That said, I’ve been to two different chiropractors and they were wildly different in everything they did. Dr Lopeig in Great Falls, Virginia is an absolute wizard.
- I sometimes come across influencers pushing chrio "treatments" on pets or newborns, saying it makes them "breathe better" or be "more energetic"
  It's infuriating
  
  its a bit more than infuriating, thats straight up dangerous.
  
  I've told this story before, but newborn chiropractors are a thing, and many new parents will take their BABIES to get their neck and back snapped around. It's frankly fucking disgusting.
- I used to see a lot of threads on reddit about people who got injuries from cheap chiropractors.
- Problem is, people go to chiropractor when they don't have access to real doctor, problem either the money or/and most doctors in your city/state can't/refuse do anything about your problem, desperation is one hell of a stimulus
  
  I can somewhat understand this. I have IBS, and most people with a bowel issue will tell you that IBS is basically your doctor saying ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
  Instead of getting help from your doctor, you go online and you hear about people finding relief through taking weird supplements, or eating only rice, or taking pre and probiotics of varying types. None of it has any proof, but it's better to try something than to struggle - and sometimes you're lucky or you find some short-lived relief.
  The difference is that there often isn't evidence for these things working, whereas there is plenty of evidence out there that says that chiropractors are doing legitimately dangerous practices to your body. The difference is that someone is trying to make a profit from this lack of knowledge.
- Holland and Barrett sell supplements. Some people do need to take a vitamin d tablet a day. I do but I've got a prescription for a vitamin d and calcium tablet because I've been low for years.
  
  I work 3rd shift, so I take Vitamin D because the sun is my nemesis.
  
  I take vitamin D about 5 months out of the year. Stupid fall back daylight saving time is part of it. Makes me furious my already battered mental health has to get worse from changing the clocks.

Essential oils. Homeopathy. Chiropractic. Reiki. Juice cleanses. Perineum sunning. Internet accelerator software. Iridology. Faith healing. Organic food. Oil pulling. Gold plated digital audio cables.
- It’s worth noting that gold plated connectors are not snake oil. Gold is a good conductor and doesn’t form a nonconductive oxide layer. That means it’s going to be more durable and won’t corrode together or apart like those old ass sheet metal tube sockets that all need to be cleaned.
- Everything marketed audiophiles, not only gold plated cables, but also anything that uses vacuum tubes because "they sound better"
  
  There’s a LOT of snake oil in the audio world. Especially home theater and home studio setups. I’m a professional audio technician, and some of the “audiophile” setups I have seen are just outright asinine.
  Use balanced signal for runs over ~3 feet. Use the cheapest star-quad cable you can get, and the most basic $4 Neutrik connectors. Why? Because that album you’re using to test your “hi-fi” sound system was recorded using exactly that: Cheap ¢30/foot cable and basic Neutrik connectors.
  It’s also what concert setups use. You think a concert with six combined miles of cabling is going to be paying $2000 per cable? Fuck no, they’re using the cheap shit (which was hand soldered in bulk at the warehouse workbench by their lowest paid shop tech), to run that million dollar audio system. Their money goes to the speakers, amps, and mixer; Not gold plated wire, robotic soldering, or triple insulated jackets. In double-blind tests, audiophiles can’t hear the difference between a $500 cable and a couple of plasti-dipped coat hangers twisted together.
  The people who complain about digital audio also can’t tell the difference in double-blind tests. Because modern audio hardware is able to perfectly emulate old analog gear. Google the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem for a breakdown of how we can perfectly capture and recreate analog audio with digital equipment. Vacuum tubes were groundbreaking when they were first used. But they had a lot of issues, and have very little relevance in today’s systems. They’re prone to burning out, notoriously fragile, and can be emulated perfectly.
  
  I was buying a toslink cable recently and I shit you not, there was a gold plated optical cable...
  
  I agree, but with one caveat.
  Fully analog tube amps do definitely produce a warmer/richer sound with less complicated things to go wrong. Artists like them because they are reliable, generally user serviceable, (usually just need to replace bad/old tubes) and makes each recording sound relatively unique.
  The thing is, is that it really only works during production. Unless being cut direct to a master record, the sound will get saved in a digital format to produce the user-facing media, which can include digital-source vinyls.
  Those products marketed to audiophiles try to take the digitally recorded/archived products to "try" making it sound like the original.
  
  I remember buying some bits and pieces to setup my home theatre in a new house years ago, and the guy at the store tried to sell me a $100 TOSLINK cable. When I asked why a $12 cable was going for so much, he pointed out that it was the "premium" cable, to ensure the highest quality audio.
  I couldn't stop laughing. Like their special cable scrubbed the photons before sending them or something.
  
  The Guys podcast has a pretty fun episode about this.
  
  Yes. I have a love-hate relationship with those people, as someone that does unrelated analog electrical stuff. On the one hand, it's kinda cool that somebody made these crazy parts (and found someone dumb enough to pay for it). On the other, no that's not what my search was about.
- Perineum sunning
  I'm sorry WHAT
- Oil pulling, if you're also OOTL. Swishing fancy oil around your mouth.
  
  One of my co-workers went for that whole hog. I remember him telling me there was no need to brush any more - just swirl oil around your mouth for ten minutes. I don't know if it works, but brushing only takes two minutes...
- Organic food is devinetively not snake oil. As you mentioned,Nutrition wise its exactly the same. However, the Environmental Impact is completely different. Organic farming is much better in terms of biodiversity, soil health. Since organic farming doesn't include the use of pesticides it doesn't kills everything else that would live on a field. Also, Theres always parts of the pesticides that stay in the crops and that you eat. I don't know exactly how bad they are, but considering that(at least in Germany) Parkinson is an accepted work related illness for farmers its sure that they aren't entirely safe for humans. However, we should take into consideration, that farmers get exposed to much higher doses of pesticides. If someone has some articles regarding this topic feel free to share.
- How do you bundle up organic food with the rest of that ?
- Organic food? Please let me take that out of your list. Organic produce has a huge lot of benefits over industrial, to both the consumer and the environment.
  
  All it takes to qualify for the organic label is a payment to the right industry group.
  
  You sure?
  https://ourworldindata.org/is-organic-agriculture-better-for-the-environment
  
  All food is organic. Every bit of it is made of carbon building blocks.
  
  All food is organic. Unless you have a crop like a chicken (you don't), you really shouldn't put any inorganic materials in your body.
- When they are talking about essential oils, they are talking about the peddling Karens and Staceys that consume overpriced lavender oil and shit with every meal and also put it into the food of their kids. And then wonder why their kid exhibits sings of certain poisoning and hives.
- Chiropractic
  I dunno what shysters you've all been going to. My chiro, with his kinesiology degree and full physiotherapy ticket in addition to his nationally-recognized certification, seems to do a lot more "do these stretches and stop sitting stupidly" guidance and reeeeally isn't interested in a "programme of wellness" grift that my friends in other regions worry about.
  Downvotes? What, jealous my guy isn't an overt shyster quack like the horror stories? I hope when you need them, there's a good one out there for ya. I'm 30 years on a wicked back injury and I'm still limber so woo!
  
  Chiropractic is literally based on the teachings of a ghost while haunting its founder.
  No, really. Look it up.

Hi-resolution audio, especially for streaming. The general idea is that listening to digital audio files that have a greater bit depth and sample rate than CD (24-bit/192Khz vs 16-bit/44.1 KHz) translates to better-sounding audio, but in practice that isn't the case.
For a detailed breakdown as to why, there's a great explanation here. But in summary, the format for CDs was so chosen because it covers enough depth and range to cover the full spectrum of human hearing.
So while "hi-res" audio does contain a lot more information (which, incidentally, means it uses up significantly more data/storage space and costs more money), our ears aren't capable of hearing it in the first place. Certain people may try to argue otherwise based on their own subjective experience, but to that I say "the placebo effect is a helluva drug."
- Conversely low res audio clearly sounds like trash.
  
  Up to a certain point, yes. >192k AAC / OGG / Opus sounds just as good as FLAC in a blind test, though. Even with good equipment.
- which, incidentally, means they use up significantly more data/storage space and cost more money
  All of this is very true, but this is the only issue I really disagree with here.
  I am in an era where a good quality rip of a movie can be almost 50 gigabytes by itself. That means for every terabyte of storage, I can store just 20 of movies of this size.
  Don't even get my started on television series and how big those can balloon to with the same kind of encoding.
  An entire collection of FLACs, thousands of albums worth, is still less than 500 gigabytes total, in other words half a terabyte. (My personal collection anyway)
  I mean, the average size of one of my FLAC albums is around 200-300 megabytes. Even with the larger "hi-res" FLAC files you're still not getting as obscenely big as movie and television files.
  Sure, it takes up more space than an MP3 or a FLAC properly encoded to CD standards (my preferred choice, for the reasons outlined above), but realistically, the amount of space it takes up compared to those is negligible when compared to other types of media.
  Storage and energy to operate storage has become incredibly cheap, especially when you're dealing with smaller files like this.
  
  This is true, especially if you are storing files locally. However, even compared to "CD quality" FLAC, a 24/192 album is still going to be around three times larger (around 1GB per album) to download. If everyone switched over to streaming hi-res audio tomorrow, there would be a noticeable jump in worldwide Internet traffic.
  I'm personally not ok with the idea of bandwidth usage jumping up over 3x (and even more compared to lossy streaming) for no discernable benefit.
  
  50 GB for a BRD rip is one that is not re-encoded, that’s a straight rip from the disk.
- I've always kinda wondered about this. I'm not an audio guy and really can't tell the difference between most of the standards. That said, I definitely remember tons and tons 'experts' telling me that no one can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p TV at typical distance to your couch. And I absolutely could and many of the people I know could. I can also tell the difference between 1080 and 4k, at the same distances.
  So I'm curious if there's just a natural variance in an individual's ability to hear and audiophiles just have a better than average range that does exceed CD quality?
  Similar to this, I can tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps, but not 60 to 120, yet some people swear they can. Which I believe, I just know that I can't. Seems like these guidelines are probably more averages, rather than hard biological limits.
  
  It's a fair question. Human hearing ability is a spectrum like anything else, however when it comes to discerning the difference in audio quality, the vast, vast majority of people cannot reliably tell the difference between high-bitrate lossy and lossless when they do a double blinded test. And that includes audiophiles with equipment worth thousands of dollars.
  Of that tiny minority who can consistently distinguish between the two, they generally can only tell by listening very closely for the very particular characteristics of the encoder format, which takes a highly trained ear and a lot of practice.
  The blind aspect is important because side-by-side comparisons (be they different audio formats, or 60fps vs 120fps video) are highly unreliable because people will generally subconsciously prefer the one they know is supposed to be better.
  
  i think hi res is for professional work. If you're going to process, modify, mix, distort the audio in a studio, you probably want the higher bit depth or rate to start with, in case you amplify or distort something and end up with an unintended artefact that is human audible. But the output sound can be down rated back to human levels before final broadcast.
  O couse if a marketing person finds out there is a such a thing as "professional quality". . . See also "military spec", "aerospace grade"
  
  I think this is the case where certain people simply can't see it here the difference.
  I collect video game and movie soundtracks and the main difference I can hear between a 320kbps VS a FLAC that's in the 1000kbps range is not straight up "clarity" in the sense that something like an instrument is "clearer" but rather the spacing and the ability to discern the difference where instruments come from is much better in a Hi-Res file with some decent wired headphones (my pair is $200). All this likey doesn't matter much though when most users stream via Spotify which sounds worse than my 320kbps locally and people are using Bluetooth headphones at lower bitrates since they don't have better codec compatibility like aptX and LDAC.
- It's for all the pets at homes hearing the same audio, now with original insects and birds outside and mice in the walls.
  
  True. There's something to be said for pleasuring any passing bats who might be in the vicinity.
- Right you are, but don't start telling everyone so I can't silently download my lossless albums from Tidal, Deezer and Qobuz anymore.
- A lot of it will depend on your output device; cheap headphones will wreck audio quality.
  I remember the bad old days when .mp3 files for streaming were often 128kbps (or less!); I could absolutely hear audio artifacts on those, and it got significantly worse with lower bitrates. 320kbps though seems to be both fairly small, and I can't personally tell the difference between that and any lossless formats.
- All you really need is the Nyquist frequency of human hearing to know. That's a good breakdown for audiophiles I'm sure but it is broadly as simple as the Nyquist frequency.

Blue light filter on glasses. When I got my glasses, the lady said they come with blue light filter for free, and I said, “I don’t want that, my job requires that I see colors accurately, so I can’t have any sort of color filter.” She said don’t worry, it doesn’t filter any colors. Ok, then what the fuck is it exactly?

I have a couple from the hip actually, because America has grifting baked into it's soul. In no particular order:
MMS (Drinkin' bleach)
Crystal healing (most sellers)
WitchTok kits (TikTok influencers selling expensive spices)
Brain pills
Any product peddled by a megachurch (see the Baker bucket for a great example)
Chiropractors
As more of these come to me, I'll try to expand the list.
Update: I can't believe I forgot chiros! They turned themselves into a religion at one point to try to dodge medical licensure laws.
- I would say that a lot of stuff being peddled through tiktok and Instagram are scams. Those anti-5g dongles come to mind.
  
  Tin foil hats are much better anti5g solution.
  
  Anti-5g dongles? That's new for me, but I consume a lot of these grifts secondhand through a few podcasts I listen to. I might be behind.
  Sounds like the bones of a good scam are there though, assuming the anti-5G conspiracy still gets traction and clicks.
  Edit: Do you know if someone like bigclive got one? He takes those sorts of devices apart a lot to explain them and I'd love to see what's inside. I just don't want to pay the money for one to fund the grift.
- Baker Bucket is a good name for a gravity bong setup.
- Idk about prevagen but my opthomologist definitely said any generic of preservation is very good, and artificial tears with flax seed oil will definitely relieve dry, itchy "sandy eye" feel. Idk if he really believes that or not but I thought I'd give some drops a try. Last time I tried artificial tears, it burned like soap so I hope it's not a waste of money.
  Oh I looked it up, there may (study funded by the industry) be a basis for that. Medical News Today
- Any product peddled by a megachurch (see the Baker bucket for a great example)
  Some megachurches have sold freeze-dried prepper food. It's not a grift per se, because it's perfectly edible freeze dried food, but it's overpriced for what you're getting.
  
  You're right, but I was thinking of the buckets that are basically terrible quality slop that's borderline inedible.
  I might still call it a grift because they're asking for payment as "donations" to skirt paying taxes on them. That, and like you said, it's not a great value for what you get. Maybe not pure snake oil, but there's definitely still enough dishonesty involved imo that I'd be comfortable calling it a grift.

Anti virus software. To protect your computer let's constantly run this software with root privileges!
- I remember mcAffee webadvisor came preinstalled with a crappy asus vivobook i got when i was younger, i could not delete it, i had to manually remove the files from the programfiles folder but it reinstalled itself every time it updated, the laptop bricked itself recently anyway so it doesn't matter.
  
  That's when you wipe the os and install linux
- Good endpoint protection doesn't run with any root privileges.

Shampoo and conditioner with vitamins in it.
Your hair is dead. It can't metabolize anything.
- I don't know anything about how it works, but I assumed it was absorbed by the skin on your head not the actual hair.
  I still doubt that putting vitamin whatever on your head everyday will actually make a difference
  
  This is correct. It’s about a healthy scalp. Like lotion for your head.
- Yeah but you gotta remember "vitamins" is just a dumbed down term to refer to fats and compounds. It's not actually like food or anything nourishing for the hair. Like a lot of haircare stuff has vitamin e in it, which is supposed to help protect hair from hot blow drying damage and also make it shiny. A lot of the stuff is also moisturizers for your scalp.
- I didn't know that. I am definitely going to keep this in mind now.
- PH numbers in any hair washing/conditioning product that gets rinsed out.
  You end up with the PH of the water, people.
- Vitamins yeah that's no good.
  Things like fruit, honey, or flowers must be good though right?
  I mean, my wife's honey pomegranate and hybiscus body scrub must be amazing with all that fruity yummy stuff.
  
  They just smell nice, your skin is dead and you're not retrieving anything from it. Just eat the fruits and veggies.

Chiropractic anything. John Oliver covered it quite well.

VPNs for internet access, at least the way they are advertised
- I'm sure plenty of them have nice little deals with the NSA lol
  
  Most of them are owned by one company. The only independent ones are Mullvad, Proton, and IVPN. For the most part, you want to Tor and never sign into anything if you are being ultra private about your browsing.
- I hate that these commercial providers are the first thing people think of when they hear "VPN" these days, rather than the actual main use case for a VPN (connecting to a remote network, like a work network, from another location).

The Mayers Briggs Type Indicator test. It was developed with the same rigor as horoscopes, yet I still hear people I know are smart proudly tell me their four letter personality code.
- Yeah, it's corporate astrology
- I've always felt that the Myers-Briggs shit was utter nonsense, having been forced many times to go through it at several employers over the years.
  Any chance you've got a decent source that debunks it? I'd love to have it in my pocket for next time...
  
  The Wikipedia entry for it is pretty scathing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator
  If you look into it further, neither of the people who designed it has any background in psychology except having read a book by Jung once.
- Typical ITPS comment! /s

Anything sold by Gwyneth Paltrow in her online shop, which I will not name here so as not to promote it. In the best case, goods sold there will be harmless and entirely useless. In the worst case, they will cause serious harm.

Any "quick fix/all-in-one" fitness or nutrition solutions. While there are minute optimizations for elite athletes, 99.99% of the population can adhere to the general consensus of nutrition and health science.
Do something that gets your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day. Speed walk, bike, row, shoot hoops, jump rope, doesn't matter, just get your heart pumping hard for at least half an hour a day.
Roughly a third of your food should be fresh leafy greens & veggies. A third should be whole grains and unprocessed starches and sugars like sweet potato and fresh fruit. The final third should be a protein. Lean meat like fish or chicken, or if you're veg/vegan, beans, tofu, seeds, peas, etc.
To build strength, general bodyweight exercises combined with stretching is fine for most people. If you wanna get really strong, get a few kettle bells or adjustable dumbells on the used market for $50-$100. You don't need an expensive fitness club membership or one of those all-in-one $2,000+ fancy machines that mounts on your wall.
Don't drink often, don't smoke, don't pound stimulants like caffeine or nicotine.
Brush your teeth well.
Get 6-8 hours a night of good quality sleep.
Keep your brain engaged, read, play music, play games, learn a language, etc.
I'm speaking from experience, because I have fallen for stuff over the years that promised fast results and optimal methods with minimal effort. Fact is, unless you're training for the Olympics or you have very specific heath conditions, those basic bullet points will cover the vast majority if general health and fitness.
- I agree with almost everything you said, except I wouldn't advocate for people including stretching as a regular part of exercise. Despite what people tend to think, there isn't really evidence to support broad general benefits of stretching. Obviously, if you are a gymnast or another type of athlete with specific needs for range of motion beyond what is "normal", go for it. It may not hurt, but it is likely a waste of time, and if you are constrained in the amount of time you can spend on exercise, you should spend that time doing things with well established benefits, like weightlifting.
  The other thing I want to add on (again cause I agree with what you said) to the diet part is that people probably shouldn't trust products like Athletic Greens to "count" as their daily vegetables, despite their marketing. I haven't been able to find good research on it that wasn't funded by them. Also, just more generally, I'm skeptical of the purported benefits of juice and smoothies. Again, it's hard to find good studies on it, but much of the benefit of fruit and veggies is in the fiber and resulting delayed digestion, so it stands to reason that the processing removes some of the benefit.
- If you want to get really strong, you might want protein and creatine supplements to speed up your progress, but even that's not necessary and they only speed things up a little.
- one of those all-in-one $2,000+ fancy machines that mounts on your wall.
  Actually about $4000 to start, plus the cost of the weight plates, bars (I prefer Ivanko), Iron Grip dumbbell sets, and so on.
  In almost all cases, it's cheaper to have a gym membership at a decent hardcore gym.
  There are a lot of things you simply can't do with bodyweight alone. And you can't do it with just a couple kettlebells and adjustable dumbbells either. Having a lot of strength and muscle mass when you're young is a very strong predictor of health in old age, since past the age of about 40, people just start losing mass and strength; the more you have before that, the better off you are.
  
  I said $2,000+ to encompass even more expensive machines/setups.
  I never said bodyweight or a kettlebell set could provide exercises for every possible movement or strength vector.
  I said that the vast majority of people don't need anything more than those to build a healthy level of fitness. And given that the average cost of a gym membership in the US is around $50 per month, after a few months, their used kettle bells or simple dumbell set has already paid for itself.
  And weights last basically forever unless they are severely damaged, so zero maintenance cost.
  Nothing wrong with going more hardcore if that's your thing, but that's not at all necessary to build a solid base of strength and general fitness.
  
  Body weight exercises can build plenty of muscle. You only need specialized muscle targeting once you're body building. For health body weight exercises are ideal, targeting individual muscles is not as useful to fitness as training many muscles in tandem for common movements.

Homeopathics, though sometimes even a placebo can have beneficial effects.
- Definitely this one, the products are sometimes placed right next to legitimate ones and worse:
  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-homeopathic-products-1.6254025
  Hidden camera reveals some pharmacists recommend homeopathic products to treat kids' cold and flu
- The problem is thinking anything cures the cold or flu. Once you have either, you have it until it runs its course. The only way to cure either would be to completely eliminate them or how they function in the body with medicine that doesn't currently exist.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Obligatory Vic and Bob.
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- Not really "modern day" snake oil when it was invented in the 1700's lol.
  
  As long as it continues to be sold on store shelves, it's modern enough to count.
- This is a common misconception of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a measurement issue, not an actual benefit.
  Tests are corrupted by using the reposnes and judgement of humans. People will say they had some sort of benefit because of expectations, poor recollection and politeness. It doesn’t mean a benefit was gained. A placebo group allows researchers to quantify how much the placebo effect has on the data they gathered, they can then see if the experiment they did had any effect. Placebo is literally our definition of zero effect.
  Anyone telling you placebo is a good thing is wrong, misinformed or deliberately misleading you. In many countries it is illegal for doctors to prescribe ‘placebo treatments’. They will still recommend such things to their patients - not because they work but because they get the patient out the door and less likely to come bother them again.

AI, particularly in how the likes of microsoft are marketing it to businesses.

Cleanses. You don't need a cleanse if you have a liver and kidneys, and if you don't you need dialysis.

Homeopathic remedies

Apple products
- I don’t think you understand what “snake oil” means.

Software/game DRM/anticheat (as a service/product) that involves code obfuscation and/or kernel driver.

Not "snakeoil" per say; employers will care about your history of education: but as an aspiring computer engineer currently in CC looking to move to a university, I've learned exactly 0 useful things at community college. Outside of the piece of paper you get at the end, it's all useless busywork, testing how much bullshit you can put up with. Everything useful I've learned in life has been for free, provided kindly by passionate communities. Hopefully this changes in university.
I think the value employers place in modern education in the United States is snakeoil, however.

Organic food versus GMOs. I think big farma is in on the organic food prices and put false narratives about the dangers of gmo foods.
- They're also not even the same category. Organic vs. non was about what kinds of chemicals amwere allowed to be added. Herbicides, pesticides, that kind of thing. GMOs are about whether a certain technology was used to genetically engineer the plants (artificial selection vs. the techniques of molecular biology). But they get all mixed up together as a result of marketing and a public that does not receive information any other way.
  There are dangers with GMOs but they're about farming sustainability and corporate power, particularly the use of IP law. The food itself, so far, is perfectly safe.
  Also, organic food is not necessarily safer. You can still put fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides on organic crops, you're just restricted to the use of certain kinds. You still need to wash organic produce to get rid of potential residue.
  
  People don't know about the U.S. seed mafia and it shows
- I wish the debate around gmos didn't focus on bs about poison so that we could talk about it's moral issues and the disgusting behavior that some gmo producers practiced
- Aren't bananas and corn both genetically modified, at least in the analog sense? Both wouldn't exist without humans altering them.
  
  By that logic a lot of vegetables are GMO.
- Try some organic food.
  
  What’s your point? It’s tastes the same.

Full Self-Driving: For sure next year... maybe.
"Artificial Intelligence": CEO's create a copy of themselves in a computer, creating an expert bullshitter program.
Customer Service: Most pre-recorded phone loops are actually built to try to frustrate people into giving up and not getting their issue resolved. Further, they record calls not because they care about your experience, but so they can collate tons of data to further exploit you and their workers. CEOs have purposefully insulated themselves from ever directly having to deal with a customer and hide behind "well we didn't tell employees to break the law!" while demanding employees hit numbers that... aren't... possibe... without... breaking... the... law.
If it's from a corporation and the PR says its to "benefit consumers" it's fucking Snake Oil, by default.
- Full Self-Driving
  Any idea that comes out of that prick's mouth is snake oil if we're going to be truthful about it.
- Tesla driver here.
  When I first heard the announcement that they were going vision-only, I thought ah shit they're boned.
  I replied on maybe a Reddit thread (?) that there was no way it'll work up north in any kind of snowy conditions, and people called me an idiot etc
  Fast forward a few years later, when I got to experience it first hand. Anytime I drive the car at night, warnings pop up on the screen like "front left camera is blocked or blinded" Cue Surprised Pikachu. In the snow, sometimes it can't even detect a road.
  I tried the free trial of FSD and, while it's a neat gimmick, I think I was able to make maybe one or two short trips (2km) without needing to disengage it.
  It was really bad
- I just had the one month trial, it worked pretty well, but it's too tentative. Like supervising a teenage driver.

Extra expensive digital hifi cables.

Crypto. Most LLM based AI. 80-90 percent of the startup world after 2009.
Anything related to toxins or detox. Keto and Carnivore diets.
Most online college programs.
Those vibram finger shoes and barefoot running. Most gym memberships; honestly half of the gym bros need to diet more than they need to slam weights and HIIT
Probably ozempic, since people going off it immediately balloon back up
I've wondered for a long time what the long term impacts of aggressive teeth bleaching are on enamel, too, but not sure if I'd call that snake oil; it works entirely as intended

Vitamin and mineral supplements. You only need supplementation if you have a specific deficiency, and deficiencies are not extremely common. Most people who take supplements do not need them and are just peeing out all the extra things they're putting in their bodies while shelling out ridiculous prices to "natural remedy" companies.
If you think you have a deficiency, explain why to a doctor. A blood test to know for sure is simple. A doctor will know what kind of supplementation would best serve you, and there may be an underlying reason that can be treated to fix it. Also eat some god damn vegetables you fat little piggy
- Except vitamin D, deficiency is very widespread
  And iron for most women
  And sometimes magnesium for sports (which we should all do)
  
  The same goes for pregnancy, where you essentially gain a deficiency because you're building another person inside you.
  
  I'm D deficient. I took D supplements for a long time; m D levels never significantly increased.
- If I don't take magnesium, I'll get cramps. While a lot of supplements are superfluous, I think you're overgeneralising.
  
  If you think you have a deficiency, explain why to a doctor. A blood test to know for sure is simple. A doctor will know what kind of supplementation would best serve you, and there may be an underlying reason that can be treated to fix it.
  I didn't say "no one should take supplements ever," I said most people who take supplements are doing so unnecessarily, and you should do so under the supervision of a physician.
  
  You may have a specific deficiency, but your story does not constitute data.
  There have been many studies that have addressed this specific issue. Literally billions of dollars are wasted every year on these supplements. If you have a healthy diet, you are very unlikely to need supplementation.
  This is the availability bias, because your experience is normal for you, you unconsciously think your experience is more normal than it is.
- Perhaps you can help me with a question? I don't see any way to meet the daily recommend amount of vitamins. Iirc to get enough vitamin k I'd have to eat 200g of spinach every day or some such. Then we haven't covered the other stuff yet.
  So what am I not getting here?
  
  Are you finding yourself deficient in vitamin K based on some symptom you're experiencing? Vitamin K is in soybeans, cashews, broccoli, chicken, grapes, blueberries, and a bunch of oils, including soybean, olive, and canola oils, and the list goes on and on. Vitamin K deficiency in adults is extremely rare.
  Like every other vitamin and mineral, eating average healthy (and even lots of unhealthy) foods will meet your RDA.
  
  200g of spinach sounds like a very reasonable amount for a single meal. I don't see the problem here.
- What about that protein powder? my brother is mad into it.
  
  Gaining significant muscle mass and strength through heavy lifting requires adequate protein intake. It is extremely challenging to build the muscle needed to squat two or three times your body weight without dramatically increasing your protein consumption. Attempting to lift heavy weights without the proper nutritional support can lead to extended recovery times, increased injury risk, and wasted effort.
  Whey protein powder can be a cost-effective and high-quality source of protein for those engaged in strength training. For individuals who lift weights regularly, protein powder can be an integral part of their training program and is not simply a gimmick. The notion that protein supplements are "snake oil" because the average person may not need them is flawed logic. The same could be said for weight training equipment, which would also be considered unnecessary for the general population, despite their benefits for those who strength train consistently.
  The key is matching your nutritional intake, including protein consumption, to your training goals and needs. Dismissing helpful protein powder as snake oil simply because they may not benefit everyone is an oversimplification. The appropriate use of protein powder can be an important part of an effective strength training regimen for those who lift heavy weights.
  
  Protein powder is a calorically dense food supplement, not a vitamin or mineral supplement
  
  Isn't there a limit of how much protein your body can absorb in a meal and the rest just gets metabolized/excreted.
  
  Unless you're vegan, you're probably already getting more protein than you need.
  Protein is needed for building muscles but most meatheads in the USA just eat all the protein and don't do enough of the exercise.
  Only about 24% of people in the US aren't "overweight" to "obese."
  Literally almost nobody needs this fucking protein because almost fuck-nobody is exercising.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States
  For the following statistics, "adult" is defined as age 20 and over. The overweight + obese percentages for the overall US population are higher reaching 39.4% in 1997, 44.5% in 2004, 56.6% in 2007, 63.8% (adults) and 17% (children) in 2008,in 2010 65.7% of American adults and 17% of American children are overweight or obese, and 63% of teenage girls become overweight by age 11. In 2013 the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 57.6% of all American citizens were overweight or obese. The organization estimated that 3/4 of the American population would likely be overweight or obese by 2020. According to research done by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, it is estimated that around 40% of Americans are considered obese, and 18% are considered severely obese as of 2019. Severe obesity is defined as a BMI over 35 in the study. Their projections say that about half of the US population (48.9%) will be considered obese and nearly 1 in 4 (24.2%) will be considered severely obese by 2030.
  What many US citizens need is portion control and regular exercise.
  
  Is your brother also mad into lifting weights? If not, they have no need for protein powder
- 2nd a doctor.
- Agreed, but just FYI, if you want minerals and vitamins, eat innards, more specifically liver.

Anything sold as a "detox"

CBD oil. It doesn't matter which exotic ailment you're talking about, someone will ask you if you've tried it and that they think it might help.
- Also, CBD honestly needs the same warnings as Grapefruit since it works on the same metabolic pathways and can decrease effectiveness of certain drugs.
  ...like my cancer drugs.
  If your drugs say to avoid grapefruit... You should probably consider skipping CBD as well.
  
  oh, that's useful info...
  
  Had a patient with a really bad reaction to a topical chemotherapy agent because he was moisturizing with CBD oil and wasn’t telling anyone about it. In trying to understand what was going on, it turns out that CBD specifically slows the metabolism of this particular chemotherapy, so it was building up in his skin.
  
  And pomegranate too, at least for my anti-rejection meds.
- CBD does ... something. It makes me sleepy. So at least for some people it can serve as a sleep aid.
  Not to me though I just tried it out of curiosity, I have no desire to be even more sleepy
  
  It gave me massive munchies and not much else.
- this is the first thing that came to my mind too….
  there is some medicinal value to it, but usually not what they claim it to be, and usually not in the form that it’s in….
- I've seen one of those fake bottles. It seemed too cheap to me so I looked up the ingredient dosage and it was near nothing. Real cbd oil is quite expensive.
  Personally I can recommend cbd pills. It's easy and you can dose it very precisely to your liking. In the nl you can get them over the counter, as is the case in many other places I imagine.

AI
Middle managers
"Enterprise solutions"
Student loans

The current discourse around AI and how we are close from agi. Meanwhile we are just using machine learning... With a shit ton of gpus... All of that to approximate a math function.

Subscriptions.

The core slikt of anti aging creams and other hydration products.
I can get like, one. But god damned, my wife has so many different products They can't all possibly be needed

Rich Dad, Poor Dad
There was no 'Rich Dad', it's all made up snake-oil.

Not all, but a lot of coaches. Like the 23-year old just out of school "executive coach", or the "lifestyle coaches", "energetic coaches" etc.

The new age environment comes to mind, with everything from colonic washes to crystals.
- What's wrong babe? 😥 You haven't done your bi-weekly coffee enema yet

I'm shocked that no one has said Essential Oils yet.
- They smell nice, if you put them in those burner thing, they have that going to them.
  
  Some also do have specific use cases where they work really well, like Tea Tree Oil for acne and nail fungus or Peppermint oil for nausea. Most of them don't do anything though.
  
  Some are toxic to animals so always check before burning them around your pets
  
  See I think they smell awful, and feels like they rip the oxygen out of the air.
- They are just allergic reactions waiting to happen.
  Tea tree oil was the only one I think to actually have merit, but I imagine we've been able to reproduce the beneficial part of in a lab. (with minimal risk of triggering allergies)
- Wait, are essential oils supposed to be anything more than fragrances you stick in a humidifier thing?
- They are essential!

If you run a website: Paid SSL/TLS certificates. Free ones like Let's Encrypt and ZeroSSL are just as good, and can be automatically renewed.

"Social" "networking"

Essential oil.

Agile Coaches.
It’s like having a cadre of political officers in your team.

Not a product, but life coach feels like the snake oil version of therapy.

I mean isn't it obviously homoeopathy and a significant part of the rest of alternative medicine (not all of it I guess). It is a billion euro business in Germany alone.

Gamer glasses
- My eye Dr recommends the blue light filtering and "digital lenses" so I got them. I haven't noticed any difference in how my eyes felt. The info packet that came with the glasses noted at all claims regarding these features are not supported by any medical studies.
- If I'm sitting in front of a computer for 6+ hours without stopping they help with headaches. But now most computers cone with light filter options.

Upward mobility

The American "food" industry, the American "health care" industry, American politics, the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex, entertainment, right off the top of my head.
- The American Dream... because you have to be asleep to believe it.
  
  Absolutely. ETA: good to see you again. A happy surprise.

- So if I understand you correctly, Graphene OS does everything it says it does but overhypes its differences with other forks. That doesn't sound like snakeoil, only effective marketing.
  Why shouldn't I use it over the other forks then, particularly because useful features like hardened_malloc are only avalible on Graphene despite being widely ported to linux distros?
  They also do not shill for Big Tech or Google/Apple.
  What's the story behind this? I'm genuinely curious.
  I will say I strongly dislike how the developer has handled criticism, but that seems to be more a failing of the dev then a problem with the OS.
- I've seen this sentiment before, but I'm waiting to switch until I learn how to add the microphone and camera quick toggles included in GrapheneOS to LineageOS. Is there a project for that?

Standing desks - stationary standing is just as bad as stationary sitting.
Blue light filter stuff - it's my understanding that there's no evidence that blue light causes eye strain.
- I always thought the point of standing desks was, that you could periodically switch between standing and sitting. That should be at least somewhat beneficial right?
  
  It really isn't that much better, instead we should be periodically stretching or exercising
  
  No, the main point of standing desk is that whoever has one talks about them all day, every day. At least, that was my experience 10-15 years ago, which was the last time I spent in an office.
- Blue light filters may not help with eye strain, but I've definitely benefited from them for circadian rhythm reasons.
- Blue light filters can still be nice at night right? As the blue light can keep you awake.
  
  I find it easier on my eyes when its 3am and i am still scrolling.
  
  Nah it's bs
- Standing alternating with sitting doing desk work does alleviate some tension and probably thrombosis. I won't say a lot, but it does help.
- The blue light filters are hilarious because most devices already support night mode
  
  They are not the same thing
- Blue light doesn't damage the eyes unless there is a burning amount of it (or a burning amount of UV), but people with bad eye focus may find it more straining to read things in blue due to the greater light scatter of the color. The solution is wear your reading glasses, I guess.
  What really strains the eyes is focusing on close up objects for hours on end. American eye doctors everywhere have the 30/30/30 rule (every 30 minutes, look at something 30ft away for 30 seconds) as a "let your eye muscles relax for a bit" exercise for those of you always working on something up close.
  That said, night filters are good just to help with your circadian rhythm, since the brain looks for a persistent abundance of a particular chunk of blue wavelength to determine "daytime".
- Yeah if your desk is stuck just in one position that's obviously going to be bad. Most 'standing' desks are actually height adjustable. You can spend some time standing some time sitting. But maybe even more important, you can adjust the desk to the right height rather than just adjusting your chair.
- I called my standing desk a dancing desk. Didn't just stand there. I don't have one now we are back in the office though, some people do but they are all short - I'm taller and it seems too odd to be looking into everyone's workspace.
  
  But how else can you easily assert dominance over the peasants?
- You can at least move a bit more when standing at the desk. Also, my past boss was recommended one due to back issues by his doctor at one point
- I've definitely noticed reduced eye strain with using blue light filters.
- Standing desks can be really nice for certain applications, where stuff like a hotas would be too tall at a fixed desk. Or for getting up if you are feeling drowsy while working.
  Or one of my favorites, moving a bowl of food as close to your face as possible for maximum laziness, haha.
  (Though it also has benefits in space-constrained apartments, since a chair can fully fit under the desk when guests are over, you are cleaning, or playing VR)

Finance courses promoted by various youtubers.

the vast majority of skincare products.

Alkaline water
Smart toothbrushes
Chiropractors
Yearly bug and pest deterrent spraying around exteriors of buildings
Self help books
Apps like Nerdwallet
- Do you remember that influencer that started her day with alkaline water with lemon juice, the lemon juice being acidic neutralises the alkaline and makes it not alkaline water.
  Those self help books just parrot the same things you would find in a wikihow article.
  
  That's snake oil peddler Gwyneth Paltrow if I recall
- Yearly bug and pest deterrent spraying around exteriors of buildings
  No, this actually does something.
  I live in an all-wood house. (Literally a log cabin.) I've had issues with carpenter ants. Spraying permethrin around the house, and on their trails when I see them, has largely eliminated the issue. It's a pretty concentrated solution, about 10:1, and has to be reapplied every few months (it does wash off, eventually), but it def. does the job.
  You can get a less concentrated treatment for clothing if you're going to be in areas with extremely high levels of mosquitos and ticks.
- Alkaline water = artificial spring water
- Yearly bug and pest deterrent spraying around exteriors of buildings
  I wanted to add to this because it might catch someone else.
  I live in a cedar cabin in the mountains. The wood is untreated on the inside. Cedar is not usually attractive to insects that eat wood, but, well... Every year since we moved there, we'd get small amounts of frass (chewed-up bits of wood) from insects eating the exposed roof beams (!!!) of our house. I would spray the beams with permethrin, a bunch of dead ant-looking things would be on the floor the next few days, and that would be it for the year.
  This year I called an exterminator, since it keeps happening. He said that it wasn't termites (yay!), but thought that it was some kind of beetle. (Powder post beetles are a huge problem in our area.) He said we had two options: we could either fumigate the entire house (cost: about $10k, since the whole house would need to be tented), or we could paint all the woodwork in the hose with a 1:1 solution of Bora-Care and water. Bora-Care is a disodium octaborate tetrahydrate and glycerin solution, and should poison the wood for pests, without being toxic to people or animals once it's dried. (I may also have to drill the beams in inject a similar product in order to get deep enough penetration.)
  This should be a one-and-done process; I should not need to repeat it.

CBD oil. I bought some about 5 years ago and it did nothing but grease up my tongue

Snake-scented oil. (1% snake oil)

In a somewhat metaphorical but nonetheless very real sense - most politics is effectively snake oil.
There's a set of people who exhibit a particular combination of mental illness and natural charisma, such that they feel an irrational urge to impose their wills on others, a lack of the necessary empathy to recognize the harm they do and the personal appeal necessary to convince others to let them do it.
There's another set of people who feel an irrational sense of helplessness - who want to turn control of their lives and their decisions over to others, so they can just go along with a preordained set of values and beliefs and choices rather expending effort on, and taking the risk of, making their own.
And just as in any more standard "snake oil" dynamic, the first group, exclusively for its own benefit, preys upon the weakness and hope of the second. Just as in any other such dynamic, the people of the first group make promises they have no intention of keeping ultimately just so that they can benefit, and the people of the second group continue, irratiomally, to believe those promises, even as all of the available evidence demonstrates that the promises are empty.
- Too cynical a take to be real.
  The above happens sometimes, and is maybe more common among older entrenched politicians (that we have in spades right now with the aging out of one of the largest generations ever). But most of the time it's real people with real beliefs who want to change things. Governments are usually set up to change slowly, if at all, so often little seems to happen, but those gears do grind slowly based on how they're pushed.
  So, your take is definitely a way to make it so the political class can continue to exploit people - you need more people upset and willing to change if you want to make a difference, not lots of powerless apathy.
- A much simpler motivation: Money.

AirUp/Flavored water companies
If you want orange flavored water, squeeze an orange in your water, damn it! You don't need a subscription service for some chemicals that taste like orange

IPhone.