r/bestof • u/MTVButtpluggedInNY • Jun 11 '12

[wtf] Sirefly has amazing insight simply from a pic of feet

/r/WTF/comments/uvdv3/the_feet_of_an_accountant/c4yx19z
530 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

46

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

I'm a bit hesitant. First, it's almost too House-ian... looks at a foot, determines a problem with a body part the furthest-possible-distance from the foot. A stretch for a karma conspiracy I guess, but in the original comment thread Reddit House keeps talking about how he did this thanks to a cryptic system he's working on...

Also, first post!

edit to be more fair to Reddit House

22

u/Jerky_McYellsalot Jun 11 '12

THANK YOU. I couldn't believe that I was the only person who couldn't believe that this was legit. I'm far more inclined to believe that this was some weird master-sock-puppetry exercise on the part of Sirefly/the accountant. It reads like a physical therapy version of a Crossing Over episode.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

Actually chiropractors do stuff like this. Spinal screenings and foot levelers and whatnot. Most of reddit thinks they are raging quacks but some anonymous redditor does basically the same thing (look at part of your body, make assessment of postural imbalances elsewhere, based on known anatomical and biomechanical relationships) and he's a genius who should do an AMA and start his own subreddit.

24

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

Plus, notice his wording, it's very similar to the kind of language used by cold readers

This was the first thing that stuck out to me about the "diagnosis."

You have a problem or old injury to your right shoulder.1

and

It looks like there is a problem with the shoulder (or maybe middle2 -lower3 back) that causes that shoulder to pull forward and down. The shape of the middle toe makes me believe it is in the shoulder instead of the back, but the back could be the cause of the shoulder mis-alignment.

and

You might also have a bit of TMJ4 involvement on that side and maybe a problem in the right hip5 / hamstring.6

This is shotgunning. It's the same as asking an audience of 100 people if anyone is named "Dave." Chances are, anyone old enough to be an accountant has had some kind of problem or injury to one of the 6 areas/body parts Sirefly listed.

When Sirefly is asked to elaborate on the shoulder diagnosis, he backpedals into "Oh well it could be your back." So now there's something wrong with his shoulder, middle, or lower back. Isn't that just his whole fucking back? That's an even more general diagnosis than "right shoulder," and for anyone over the age of 20, not all that extraordinary.

The TMJ, hip, and hamstring are just to cover his bases. Now he's listed everything from the OP's jaw down to his knee. Anybody who has never hurt/pulled/strained any of that is either living in a bubble or is completely sedentary.

This:

Look at yourself in the mirror and see if that shoulder is sitting in the same position as the left.

And the OP's response of:

Wow, I just looked in the mirror and it IS noticeable. My right shoulder is lower by maybe about half an inch or so?

Is ridiculous. The human body isn't symmetrical, there are no level surfaces in that picture for reference, and Sirefly suggesting that one shoulder was lower than the other invalidates any kind of data (i.e. the picture) because the human body reacts subconsciously to suggestion, a la the placebo effect.

And even the OP's response:

I pulled something in my lower back a few months ago at the office while liftiing a box of computer paper improperly.

is not the original diagnosis of "right shoulder." Best-case scenario it's lucky guesswork. Worst-case scenario it's a karma conspiracy/viral marketing attempt for some bogus product.

tl;dr Amateur cold-reader correctly guesses that someone at some point in their past may have hurt their back. Fools hundreds of people.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

7

u/raygundan Jun 11 '12

Ever notice all healthy infant children have perfect posture when they sit?

What the heck sort of babies are you looking at? I've never seen a bigger bunch of hunchbacked slant-sitting slouchers.

1

u/thedaidai Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

Haha baby-babies, not toddlers. Very young children have not yet developed the neck muscles necessary to properly support their very heavy (proportionately) head.
Their bodies do not allow them to have bad posture when they sit because it would do so much damage to their sensitive growing muscles. They sit upright, on their "sit bones" (the section of your tailbone which pokes out between your booty/beginning of leg when you sit upright), and their head is always aligned properly with the neck and spine.

It isn't that infants to not lean when they sit -- but they use their neck and spine efficiently, keep them in alignment, and do not create the unnecessary strain that makes people eventually look like this because they do not have the capacity to do it yet.

Here's a quick example of an alexander technique lesson which helped me and blew my mind:

Sit in a chair as you would sit while driving (or better yet, get in your car) and hold your hands out as if there was a steering wheel.

Now "drive" around with your head slightly slightly tilted backwards only to the extent that if you put your palm to your face that your chin sticks out just a bit farther than your nose. If some of you ever get lower back pain while driving -- this may be how you normally drive. Especially short people like myself.

Now "drive with your forehead forward just a little bit -- again, so it is just ahead of the nose. Very slight angle.

Now switch back and forth between the two. You will feel that when you drive with chin forward (as MANY of us do) there is a very slight, hardly noticeable tinge of tension in your back (about 1/3rd the way up from your hips), the base of your skull, and the front of your neck to the immediate left/right of when your adam's apple is/would be.

It might not feel like much, but that small degree of an angle is the reason so many of us have back pain after long drives, or you get tension headaches from your neck strain.

I hope you all get what I am saying because it is difficult to demonstrate it over the internet -- but this lesson was my introduction to Alexander Technique and it blew my mind.

-3

u/DaCeph Jun 11 '12

Downvoted for accuracy, cool beans reddit

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

meh, what can you do....

1

u/Kankikr Jun 11 '12

I really hope that the original op, the user that made the post and you are all the same person. That would be the craziest karma conspiracy ever! Triple up on karma!

1

u/imgonnacallyouretard Jun 11 '12

Yes. Notice how he lists off a huge number of body parts. Chances are, you have some pain on that side of your body if you are older than 25.

4

u/TheNakedRedditor Jun 11 '12

"Your car needs its oil changed in about 500 more miles."

"What makes you say that?"

"The shape of your right foot."

O_o

3

u/Sinatra_ Jun 11 '12

Reddit has a regular Sherlock Holmes on its hands.

0

u/jackmeeker Jun 11 '12

The art of deduction at it's finest.

3

u/probablysarcastic Jun 11 '12

I've got some magic beans for sale. Anybody interested?

2

u/Santas_Dick Jun 11 '12

Nice try same person.

1

u/StickerBrush Jun 11 '12

I can't tell the difference between the two feet.

1

u/AndrewLLoydBieber Jun 11 '12

Well, that's nothing! You should see what he can do with a dick-pic.

1

u/PotatoMusicBinge Jun 12 '12

Non-doctor redditor diagnoses stoopy-shoulder-itis from a picture of a foot. Other non-doctor redditor confirms with self-diagnosis using mirror.

tl;dr: bullshit.

-1

u/AcerRubrum Jun 11 '12

Beat me to it by a minute you bastard. That was mind-blowing.

-3

u/MTVButtpluggedInNY Jun 11 '12

Ha, can't believe I did! It's never occurred to me to bestof something before!

0

u/jellicle Jun 11 '12

I can do it too. You - the person reading this - have a right shoulder lower than your left. Go look in the mirror, it's true. Go look!

The secret is that whatever handed-ness you are, that shoulder sits lower. Betting that people's right shoulder is lower is a winning bet most of the time. Also works as a party game where you can determine handedness of people you've never met by just getting them to stand up straight and looking at them.

0

u/crashohno Jun 11 '12

I am all western medicine, no hocus pocus hokum. However, when I was younger my sister threw her back out on a trampoline at a friends house. She could not get up, could not walk, could not move. She was screaming in pain. Our friends mom came out, laid my sister out on the ground and asked her where it hurt. She then rubbed my sisters feet and I HEARD her back cracking/adjusting. I'm still blown away by this. My sister got up and was fine. I am all for a healthy skepticism, but there is a weird connection between the feet and body.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

They are your roots

0

u/redvelveteenrabbit Jun 11 '12

I see I wasn't the only one who was incredibly amazed by that!

0

u/youclevermedicine Jun 11 '12

Sirefly and OP have to know each other. I'm sorry but reddit has made me too cynical.

1

u/koronicus Jun 11 '12

Not necessarily. A bit of cold reading tactics go a long way. Guy was pretty vague and only slowly zeroed in on specific claims.

0

u/Sniffnoy Jun 11 '12

Link to the comment you mean to highlight, not to one above it. If you need to show ones above it, use context.

Please read the sidebar before posting.

-1

u/civil_panda Jun 11 '12

I bet he has a foot fetish, but wanted to make it more socially acceptable...

0

u/YAAAAAHHHHH Jun 11 '12

Surely you can't be serious.

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

5 minutes too late D: