Thought verbs: yes or no?

"First, there's this: http://gizmodo.com/will-your-novel-be-a-best-seller-ask-this-super-accura-1497802491

That article explains that successful books (i.e. books readers tend to enjoy the most) avoid verbs and adverbs that describe specific actions and emotions, and instead make more use of "thought verbs" that describe the thought process.

But then, there's this: http://litreactor.com/essays/chuck-palahniuk/nuts-and-bolts-“thought”-verbs

In this article, Chuck Palahniuk says to do the complete opposite of what the algorithm in the first link noted was successful - describe the action directly and let the reader do the thinking.

I understand that an algorithm is not something to be taken as gospel, but it is quite fascinating to note the similarities of successful books and those of unsuccessful books, whether those similarities factor into the success of the book in any meaningful way or not "