Member-only story
There’s No Such Thing as Good Advice
Why specific directions tend to be the most useless
Most action-based advice is bad. It’s condescending. (Work hard!) And it’s frequently contradictory (Do whatever doesn’t feel like work!)
Fortunately, it’s not just me —a post I recently saw on Hacker News argued this very thing, making fun of the uselessness of truisms like “Be hard to compete with.” Some other favorites: Follow boring advice. Practice gratitude. Focus. Stay positive. Lean in. Give fewer fucks. Make your habits small. Surround yourself with good people.
These kind of platitudes are everywhere and pretty easy to spot — I know because I’ve written plenty. The post says that good advice has three main components:
- It is not obvious
- It is actionable
- It is based on some true insight
This seems like a great list! You don’t want clichés (Believe in yourself!), you want something concrete to do (Delete social media!), and, mostly, you don’t want follow bullshit. Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion that these three things are largely impossible to find together in anything you’ll find online. Like the cliché about having to choose between 2 of the 3 (good, fast, and cheap) if you want to hire a freelancer, good advice can’t be actionable and not obvious.
To understand why, let’s say you have a clear goal — you want to go to the Apple store — and need advice for how to get there. From my perspective, I could tell you one of these:
- “When you get out of here, take a left onto the main road. Drive down a few miles, get on the 217, and then get off at exit 291. Make the first left, and then follow the signs from there.”
- “Go west, then south. Look for the signs for Washington Square Mall.”
- “Drive towards the 217, get off at 291.”
- “Take the Max. Then the bus. Then get off at the stop at the mall. Or get an Uber or a Lyft.”
#1 is the most actionable; #2 and #3 require lots of insider knowledge and an ability to fill in the gaps and/or read maps; #4 is so generic that it’s useless. But #1–3 would only work for people trying to get there from my house.
