All advice is bad advice

For any advice put forth by anyone in public, I believe, there should be polar opposite advice put forth as well.

A counter aphorism to every aphorism.

Most advice is given from the frame of reference of the giver and their personal experiences. In some cases, people write advice for a particular set of people and put it in public. That advice eventually ends up in hands of poor souls who should be doing the exact opposite.

Imagine a least conscientious soul reading an advice about why perfectionism is bad. They are probably going to shoot themselves in the foot if they double down on their ways.

With each advice we should specifically and repeatedly mention who it is meant for and what everyone else should be doing. This is doubly more important for influential people with large audiences.

Trying to come up with a counter advice would most likely make you give up writing generic statements because devil is in the details and true help is done at a very personal level.

It might introduce you to new ideas that you were unaware of. It will make your thought complete. Nothing is true.

Some books do mention who the book is intended for but all books should specifically mention who this book is not for and sometimes for each concept write about its nuances and caveats too.

This is true for anyone who wants to give well-meaning advice and not just to write a best seller. Absolutist aphoristic advice might sound and appear wise. It helps only half of the people if it really does at all.

For people in mentorship roles, it's important to listen a lot and give very specific situational advice with all the ifs and buts. Such a mentor might sound confused and would never become a good motivational speaker but would prove to be very useful.

Motivational speakers should probably just die.

For consumers of advice, take everything with a bucket of salt and introspect heavily. For each piece of content consumer introspect for an hour at least. This reminds me of @simonsarris tweet about reading. Spot on.

If you can't introspect effectively, find a friend who is better at listening and bounce your ideas against him/her. Think out loud. It's still not as effective as introspection but helps.

Your subconscious will teach you exactly what you need to know better than anyone else. Give it time and space.

Give time by letting ideas sink in and live them for some time. Give space by listening to it and consciously trying to integrate it in your thinking.

In the end, all advice is bad advice. Even this one.