self-help and aerobics: a pseudo-scientific method for detecting snake oil

Next time someone tries to sell you wisdom, ask: Would this make sense if shouted while doing burpees? If yes, run. I call it the aerobics test: an infallible method for detecting intellectual charlatanism. Because philosophy that works at 160bpm probably isn't philosophy at all.

João Sevilhano

Sep 27, 2025

7 min read

João Sevilhano

Sep 27, 2025 - 7 min read

Some paragraphs of this essay were drafted in May 2024, before I encountered Monika Jiang's excellent "The wellness industry won't heal you," which crystallized several ideas I'd been grappling with. Her analysis of wellness culture as a form of exploitation disguised as empowerment deeply informed the final version of this piece.

It was firstly written in Portuguese, and is yet to be published, as of 27 of September 2025.

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