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Comments (126)

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  hk__2
  > Which is why I find it pretty funny that Ozempic is arguably the biggest weight-loss breakthrough in decades - and all it does is make you…eat less. Billions in R&D, and the answer was the platitude the whole time. Ha.The problem was not that we didn’t know what to do ("eat less"), but to enable that solution.
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  sksksk
  There are so many podcasts where "successful" people (within a narrow definition of success) give advice.The issue there, is that for every "successful" person, there are thousads who did the exact same things and didn't make it. Arguably a better thing would be to interview the ones who failed, and learn lessons from them.Secondly, the person themselves can be selective in what they share, they may talk about the risks they took to get where they are, but not about the backstop of a wealthy family to fall back on if it all goes wrong (for example).
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  tombert
  I had some skepticism from a friend when I told him that graduate school is significantly easier than undergrad. It's not that the work is "easier" in any kind of objective sense, it's that almost by definition if you're going to graduate school it's for a topic that you think is interesting, and as such you're going to have more interest and/or aptitude for it.I had trouble with university the first time around, but it wasn't for the stuff that I thought was interesting. I did fine in my math classes and physics courses and the like; the thing that I struggled the most with were my "easy" courses (e.g. multicultural film). I just did not care about anything that wasn't math or computers, and as such I had trouble forcing myself to do the homework or study and of course I did poorly in the courses.I've gotten a lot better at forcing myself to do boring work now, but ironically once I decided to do grad school and get my masters, I found it a lot easier. I didn't have to do any courses that I thought were boring. I got to focus on data structures and math and programming languages. You know, fun stuff! As such the masters was (comparatively speaking) a breeze for me because I didn't mind spending hours studying every day.It occurs to me, though, that this advice might just be about me specifically, which I suppose is the point of the article.
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  elohimus
  I really like this piece - but it points to a wider truth. All advice is contextual.- It's contextual to the advice giver: Is it specific to them? Do they have an ulterior motive or are beholden to someone with an ulterior motive, e.g. getting you to support their agenda or getting you to buy or vote.- It's contextual to you: Does that fit the way you operate? Does it play to your strengths?- And it's contextual to your ...well... context: Are you in a country where this advice applies? Do you have the financial means to execute on it, etc...Bottom line - there are very few pieces of truly universal good advice.
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  clickety_clack
  If I have to choose between hearing advice (which I can ignore), or not getting any advice at all, I’d much rather get the advice. I’ve ignored a lot of advice in my time, but every once in a while a diamond sneaks through, and often I get an idea or two for a different way of looking at things.
• orblivion
  Generally supportive of this blog post (with the caveat on "eat less" but that's addressed by another commenter). It addresses a pain point for me and I appreciate it. It's particularly painful for those of us who tend to be self-critical. No matter what some asshole is telling you you're doing it wrong. I wish people giving the advice would read this as well. I found the "say yes" vs "say no" thing in particular very funny and I'm surprised I never noticed it.
• chistev
  Solomon's paradox is the observation that people can give reasonable advice to others, but fail to apply this advice to their own situationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon%27s_paradox
• solatic
  You don't ask for advice to have someone else make your decisions for you, rather in the hope that you learn about options you didn't otherwise realize were open to you. You ask for advice to "get out of your head".It may not be right for you, but you'll have made a better decision for having considered it.
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  999900000999
  “Best advice I heard was don’t listen.”- Cousin StizzDon’t value the experiences of others over your own.You’ll end up in a never ending loop of trying to change instead of working on your own path.People largely don’t give a crap about you.For myself I had to leave my hometown to be happy. And like that everything was easier. I had an amazing partner and a better commute.You don’t need to validate yourself vs the opinions of others.
• chris_money202
  There's a scale to this as well. When you take advice from something in a book, that isn't specific, its general and meant to appeal to many. When you take advice from a colleague or friend, its more specific, they know more about your context and situation, the advice fits better.Everything OP said though still applies, figure it out for yourself.
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  randusername
  We should distinguish between 1:many advice and 1:1 advice.An interviewer is really asking "how do you recommend people replicate your success?" which grounds the response in the hard lessons that person learned on their own journey.Personalized advice can be equally useless, but if that person really understands you and your situation you might be surprised how specific and valuable good objective feedback can be.
• Hasz
  > We trust confident people, even when they're wrongI think this idea can be expanded on, and it is to separate the merits of the idea from the delivery of the idea. I see this frequently with: - neurodivergent people (of whatever variety) - ESL speakers - cultural clashes (eg Dutch / American meetings)If you can separate delivery and the merits of a discussion, you can benefit both ways -- taking a skeptical view on the best pitches (eg from anyone on a Forbes 30 for 30 list) and an optimistic view on the worst.
• Balgair
  When you want advice, ask for money.When you want money, ask for advice.
• kazinator
  There is also "follow low effort".
• jtommy14
  Usually when I'm in a crappy situation, I try to pretend my best friend is in that situation, and I'll give him advice. Often helps me come up with good ideas and kinda strips away all the bs and excuses I'm telling myself. That being said, the more deeply held the excuses and bs are, the harder it is to actually do this.
• yipinwong
  (My analogy for this article only): Ideas gleaned from the article.AIs do not have all the contexts about you thus provide you guidance not fit for you. Advisors are the same, they don't know everything about you thus not all advices fit for you.You know about yourself the best (given you "reflect") and make trade-offs between what you know, and what you consider benficial to you.As I always bring up about making tradeoffs in HN in my comments, the article is solid.
• 01100011
  This is especially appropriate for HN and other software engineering forums where embedded/systems, frontend, backend, imperitive, functional, etc programmers all constantly yell at each other about whether the elephant is a rope or a snake or a tree.It's easy to think your experience encompasses all of "software" and give definitive advice to others who work in a vastly different space than you do.
• 1970-01-01
  The X-factor of LLM AI advice is how it consists of both artificial and intelligent responses; It cannot cloud judgement by having feelings and will still think very carefully about your problem.
• romesmoke
  Most advice given by people unaffected by whatever comes out of whatever you do with the advice given is garbage (Nassim Taleb, Skin in the Game).
• radial_symmetry
  Scott Alexander has a great post on this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/24/should-you-reverse-any...
• glitchc
  Sadly no one wants the truth, so folks like Jobs and Cuban have to layer it with bromides. Truth is they're both giving the exact same advice, it's just that the honest version is deeply unpopular, because it implies that there is no secret sauce.The advice is: Work very hard on something, and you too might get lucky.Jobs' version is just slightly modified: Work very hard on something (you care about), and you too might get lucky.
• alhirzel
  Best advice I ever received was to learn to take good advice.Still not sure how to do that...
• Aurornis
  Another variation of this: Advice is what the person giving it needs to hear for themself.This is oddly evident in beginner influencers trying to become gurus on social media. They try to write life advice from a position of superiority, but when you look closely they’re given themselves a little pep talk about how they want to be or what they need to hear. It doesn’t mean the advice is wrong, but you can see through the illusion that you’re hearing sage advice from someone who figured it all out long ago.
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  thomastjeffery
  In other words: communication requires empathy.
• dec0dedab0de
  Is it just me, or is this just an ad with a headline that is trying to make common sense sound profound?
• readthenotes1
  No support for the assertion in the title.
• podgorniy
  There is something related to meritocracy and sharing back in all these ideas. But i can't pinpoint extractly what is it....
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  win311fwg
  > Mark Cuban says the oppositeIn what way are they opposing thoughts? Steve Jobs said keep putting in the effort until you find the thing that you love. Mark Cuban also said keep putting in the effort until you find the thing that you love. The exact word choice may have differed, but they both expressed the exact same thing.
• Bernardo_Crvlh
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• derekhong
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• learntoplaypitc
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• andsoitis
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• anon
  undefined