Why is 'false' truthy in javascript?

Question

I understand that an empty string is falsy in javascript and a not-empty string is truthy in javascript.

However, why is \'false\' truthy in javascript,

Answer 1

Replying to the last part of your question:

Are there situations where you would want the string 'false' to represent true?

Let's consider I am testing for empty strings in my user input. To achieve that, I issue:

if (!theInput) {
    // Do something.
}

Now do I want that condition to be true if the user enters false in the text box? Of course, I don't.