Does astrology work (is personality correlated with the positions of celestial bodies at birth)?

Have you heard of the concept of falsifiability? It really changed my thinking when I learnt about it. What it says, is that when choosing what theories to believe in, we should pick the ones that predict things that are highly vulnerable to being proven wrong.

Suppose I tell you "there's less oxygen at higher altitudes". When I say this, I'm leaving myself vulnerable, because the theory makes predictions, and if those predictions turn out to be wrong, so is my theory. The theory should predict that you'll find it difficult to breathe if you climb a tall mountain, that combustion should be slower up there, and if you fly a jet it won't be able to go past a certain altitude without its engine dying. A theory earns credibility in the same way the person making the theory does: by putting themselves on the line. Make predictions. Test the predictions. Are the predictions wrong? Then so is the theory.

In contrast, the problem with astrology, is that the theory is essentially invulnerable to being proven wrong. The theory makes predictions, sure. But when the predictions don't turn out as expected, there's always a reason the astrologers give as to why that's the case. So it's not that the theory is wrong per se, it's just that the theory hasn't earned credibility. The theory, and the proponents of the theory, don't put themselves on the line.

And here's the clincher: astrologers don't need to put themselves on the line. In astrology as it's widely conducted, there is no premium on predictions that more accurately align with the stars. What separates a good astrologer from a bad one is the brilliance with which they 1) make those predictions general enough to work across many if not most people 2) in the context of a particular person, tailor those predictions to that person.