Advice is overrated

As you read this, and anything else you read or hear, I invite you to do two things: on one hand, consider what might make sense in it, and on other, consider that the writer or speaker might have no idea what they’re saying.

No matter how well-meaning the advisor is… how many years they’ve put in, how much research backs their view, or how eloquently they deliver it—what they’re saying might not be right for you. It might even lead to a good outcome… that leads to a bad one… that leads to another. Life is funny like that.

Life is far too complex for us to sit permanently at anyone’s footstool and take everything they say as instruction.

No one should have that kind of hold on you—not out of pride, but because no one is wise enough to know what’s exactly right, true, or best for another.

What we do have are experienced minds and thoughtful voices. They are useful. But ultimately, our duty as individual humans is to gather these voices as inputs—not instructions—and think for ourselves.

PS. You may have just read the worst advice of your life.