So this is why I got good grades

It turns out that what 'the experts' have been telling us about 'good study habits' is a bunch of balderdash - moving around, jumping from one thing to another and studying in short bursts interspersed with play or other activities actually deliver far more learning.  Here's the money graf from the New York Times article:
For instance, instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. So does studying distinct but related skills or concepts in one sitting, rather than focusing intensely on a single thing

So after feeling guilty that my ADHD addled personality was failing to 'get the most' out of every day and trying for years to do what the 'the experts' told me, it turns out that they were full of it.  My work style is now considered to be 'optimal'.  So why have so many promoted learning styles that have been recognized to be flawed for so long?  My theory is control.  Teachers are by their very nature authoritarian figures.  Their goal is to control their classrooms and minimize confusion and chaos because handling flux is much harder than blocked regimentation.  This is why teachers like girls so much more than boys and almost demand that large numbers of boys be drugged before they enter the classroom.  Yet the learning styles that these ADHD boys exhibit turn out to be selected for the most learning.  The paradox of oligopolistic markets like education is that bad technology can persist for generations because the market is not allowed to punish the foolishness.

But this all raises an even more fundamental point:  we are constantly being told by 'experts' to do this or do that - 'global warming!', 'go to college!', 'less fat!', 'less carbs!'.  Indeed one whole political party in this country is dedicated to the proposition that they can legislate the good life based upon expert knowledge.  It turns out that social science claims of expertise are extremely fallible.  Scientists are just as prone to bias as the rest of us.  And the more social or political the subject, the more bias prone they are. Rather than swinging from one expert to another in a vain attempt to live the 'right life' I would recommend hewing to timeless truths passed down via generations of experience - a lot of it can be found in the Bible.  Deviate from what you've learned from prior generations only when the evidence becomes overwhelming.  This is the essence of principled conservatism.

The first person an expert lies to is himself.  That's why they're so convincing.