Some Advice About Advice

There is an enormous amount of wonderful information that exists in written form – books and articles in libraries around the world. A true wealth of incredible information; more than you’ll ever need. The solution to nearly any problem you may ever have can be found in a book somewhere. And so it stands to reason that one of the most fundamental skills you need in life is basic literacy. Once you can read, you’re off to the races.

Then again, there’s a second, deeply vital skill that you need to layer on top, as quickly as you can: reading critically. Just as there’s a tremendous amount of truth and knowledge on written pages out there, there’s also a tremendous amount of bullshit. And then there’s perhaps the most dangerous category: information that is true and helpful for someone, but not you.

The same principle applies to advice. No matter what situation you’re in, it’s almost certain that someone has gone through it before. Lots of those people like to give advice, and they’re probably giving it out whether you’re asking for it or not. There’s as much free advice out there as there are books, and the thing is this: Some of it is helpful to you.

So the most vital skill you need to develop is how to listen critically to that advice.
It’s not helpful to dismiss it all as bunk – that’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater and you’re giving up incredible resources. But it’s also pointless to try to take all the advice you hear; there’s not only more than you could ever act on, but much of it is contradictory!

So let’s talk about how to parse the advice and separate what’s helpful to you from what’s not. I’ll use the example of a topic that seems to have a never-ending stream of advice about it (including from yours truly, which is why I’m choosing this topic): job hunting.

Job hunting is fairly universal as a modern human experience, and lots of people have either been very successful at it themselves or have actually worked directly in this field, be it as a recruiter, hiring manager, career counselor, etc., and have some extra level of expertise as a result. Some (read: many) of these people try to pass on what they know to a broader audience.

And here we have the first problem. There’s no such thing as a truly universal experience unless we’re defining things so broadly that they’re not helpful. Someone who has been a corporate recruiter for a Fortune 50 financial institution for the last two decades and a tech founder who dropped out of college in their freshman year and then went on to create and sell three successful startups over the last five years are both going to have a lot of advice about how to succeed on the job hunt. Their respective methods will be completely opposite of one another, and both will be right.

This isn’t hypothetical – I witnessed an argument between those two people on LinkedIn. Both of them had valid points, lots of examples, etc. Because both were right. But both of them were making the same elemental mistake: They viewed their bubble as the entire world. They generalized from the self and took their lessons to be universal wisdom, and they viewed the other person as giving bad advice because it would be bad advice to the people who were in their own respective worlds.

So here’s the first lesson in critically evaluating advice: look to the speaker not only to evaluate their general expertise but also to evaluate how relevant it is to your specific situation. Because the speaker, especially if you’re looking at advice in the public square, has no idea what the specifics of your situation are. Are you trying to get a job in a top-rated financial institution or are you trying to get a job at a tech startup? Are you trying to impress a person like that recruiter or like that founder?

There’s a running joke these days about “boomer advice,” and how non-relevant it is to the current generation of jobseekers. The joke is usually along the lines of an older dad or granddad telling a younger person “Just walk in, give ’em a good handshake, and tell ’em what a hard worker you are and you’ll get the job!” And then the younger person rolls their eyes because sure, that worked when you were my age, but the world is different now.

But here’s the thing – the world was always different depending on where you looked. Imagine you apply for a job and get called in for a first interview, only to discover that the manager interviewing you reminds you a lot of your granddad. Well, maybe the “firm handshake and bold request” method isn’t so silly now, because no advice is universally good or bad. You have to know what tool to use for what job.

You want dating advice from people who either A.) are very similar to you and generally successful at dating in specifically the ways you want to be successful, or B.) are the kind of people you want to date and who generally date people like you. Anyone else is going to give you advice that might be perfectly good, but not for you. You want financial advice from people who either are or recently were in similar financial situations to yours, but managed that situation successfully – or professionals with a track record of successfully helping people in that niche. And so on, you get it.

Which brings me back to why I picked “job hunting” as a topic for example in the first place. I’m in that space! I give that kind of advice! And if you listen to me, I want you to do this exact same thing. Consider who I am. Consider my circles, consider my bubble. Consider that I’m a stranger to the world of academia, for example. If you’re trying to get tenure, I have no idea how to help you. Some of my advice might turn out to be helpful, but it would be accidental.

I’m aware of my bubble – maybe not fully aware, but probably more than most. Even if I can help 1% of people, that’s millions; so I’m content. But as you go out gathering advice, remember: The objective measure isn’t how many people the advice is right for. The objective measure is whether you’re one of them.