Some years ago, I used to read a productivity guy’s blog and he randomly veered into proselytizing about the laws of attraction – you know, the idea that if you just think about something hard enough, you’ll manifest it.

While I agree that we’re more likely to get the things we focus on, I don’t think it has anything to do with mystical powers. I think it has to do with taking steps to get those things that we focus on.

I also think believing in manifestation ends up being very victim blaming and unempathetic – “You must have cancer because you attracted it to yourself” is the level of thinking here. And it’s bullshit.

But what disturbed me the most about this guy was that he told a story – one that we were apparently supposed to admire – about teaching his son to manifest money by looking at the ground for change people might have dropped.

And I was so horrified by the thought of this little kid spending his life looking at the ground for nickels that I just have never gotten over it. That’s what you’re teaching your kid? To stare at the ground wherever they are?

What if, instead, he had taught his child to look up? I mean, the night sky has millions of diamonds. Why not look for those?

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Jennifer Lawler has been a writer-editor for more than twenty-five years and has published more than forty novels and nonfiction books. She is the founder of the online education company Club Ed LLC.