"Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme" ... in 2010
Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
11–20 of 78 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#12Be nice, forgive, don't retaliate, work hard.
At least you saved the bad advice for last :)
IDK... define "being nice." If it means having a default policy of yielding to others, that is in fact horrible business/career advice.
We don't need to treat every situation as an adversarial/machiavellian game, however "being nice," is in fact often bad advice.
Maybe be calm, collected, respectful, but strong and self-advocating (because generally no one else is going to advocate for you out of good will.)
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#13The following was advice an accomplished PhD wrote to me discouraging me from co-founding Pretty Litter which would eventually become a billion dollar (sold to Mars) CPG business: “here is some free consulting advice: you need to think very carefully through the economics and competitive environment of the cat litter business. At the end of the day there needs to be a real business, not just an exercise in PR and cro…
So how did you overcome your "zero expertise, IP, or competitive advantages" limitations, assuming they were accurate?
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#14From my mother, a very emphatic "Don't sleep with women unless you love them!"
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#15The following was advice an accomplished PhD wrote to me discouraging me from co-founding Pretty Litter which would eventually become a billion dollar (sold to Mars) CPG business: “here is some free consulting advice: you need to think very carefully through the economics and competitive environment of the cat litter business. At the end of the day there needs to be a real business, not just an exercise in PR and cro…
Was it only the last sentence that was wrong?
Would you mind indicating what advice you think the PhD person should have written to you based on what they knew of you at the time?
Genuinely curious, and thank you for the anecdote.
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#16Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#17From my mother, a very emphatic "Don't sleep with women unless you love them!"
What's wrong with that ?
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#18From my mother, a very emphatic "Don't sleep with women unless you love them!"
Wise mother
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#19I had a mortgage broker try to get me into a variable rate mortgage I truly couldn't afford just before the rate hikes.
"The Bank of Canada won't raise rates, they can't, it'll tank the market."
I knew even then that was unhinged financial advice. This was a man who had a radio show about finances in Montreal.
He also tried to saddle me with a real estate broker who only showed properties to me that she was selling (and outside my price range/location).
If I followed his advice, I'd have had to sell the house the same year I bought it.
The story ends happily, I bought a great place that was affordable and a mortgage that I've never struggled to pay.
Keep a wide birth of Terry Kilakos if you are in Montreal folks.
Re: Ask HN: What's the worst advice you've ever received?
#20"Just be yourself". Such terrible, useless advice to give to someone who is struggling with dating.
I'd even call that non-advice a type of mockery.
Since that's, after all, how everyone starts, obviously the cohort who thereafter asks for advice has found that not enough.