I don't like this guys advice.
Why doesn't advice work?
31–40 of 334 posts
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#32I think about this sometimes and I think the article is on to something when they point out that often advice is describing the outcome, not really how to get there. You see this often is sports training.
For instance, in golf you'll often see instructors on YouTube or in a blog say that you need to "create lag" and to have "shaft lean at impact" when describing the ideal state of the golf swing at certain intervals. But these are missing the point entirely - you don't force lag or shaft lean. They are byproducts of other swing mechanics and will occur when those mechanics are performed well and in proper sequence with good timing.
You see this happen where the effect is mistaken for the cause. So of course the person doesn't take the advice because they fundamentally misunderstand the problem to be solved or the actions required to get into the state that indicates good form. The outcome is mistaken for the process.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#33Most people, in my experience, not only do not think logically but actively eschew thinking logically, making long term plans, goal setting, etc. I don't know if it's an intelligence thing. I don't think it is. I have met not so smart people that are incredibly goal oriented and very smart people who piss it all away. I'm at a point in my career/life where I often find myself giving advice to people who aren't intere…
I generally do ignore advice, unless i ask for one, like when i have a problem or when i feel
helpless. I just leave people alone and expect the same from them. Everyone is on their own journey, i do not know about theirs and they do not know about mine. Mostly people give under-complex advice, that do not take my situation into account. It always feels out-of-touch. But that is just me.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#34It sounds like the author is coming from a places of intellect and might be missing more of the emotional reasons people don't follow advice. Intellectual-emotional dissonance is one of the biggest reasons people don't do things they know they should [1] be doing. We often have the mistaken approach that if we pile on more intellectual reasons why we should take the advice that the logic will outweigh our emotions an…
Imagine a patch of ice on a busy sidewalk. You can put up a sign that says "be careful, icy path" but lots of people are still going to slip and fall. The advice (ie the sign) can only do so much as long as the hazard exists. The challenge here is the hazards are your mental models so they are a lot harder to clear than an icy patch.
> the hazards are your mental models
Yep, and almost everyone thinks their mental models accurately reflect reality. If they didn't, surely they would change their model, right? ;) Sometimes, even, folk's mental models become so important they try to force reality to conform to them, often with disastrous results.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#35"Move your feet up" is a cue. It's shorthand for something much more complicated that you've already learned and need to be reminded to apply in the moment.
When squatting, someone might tell you to "drive from the hips" or "knees out." When singing, someone might advise "diaphragm!" When coding, "DRY!" The obvious interpretation of these things don't stand on their own.
Cues aren't advice.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#36I think it's a pretty simple, and timeless, aspect of human nature: "People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others." - Blaise Pascal, 1670
> themselves discovered
Do you think people consider recommendation systems (feeds which inform their worldview) to be a part of natural order of things so they don't suspect it. Even if they know it to be algorithmic, nudges can be inserted at appropriate times when our guards are down.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#37An important reason for intergenerational conflict is that older generation offers mostly advice, while young generation expects an examples.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
This statement seems highly abstract - what sort of goals and long term plans should people have?
Homeownership (or a more city-oriented construct), civic impact, career growth, retirement, family planning, marriage, growing a business, investment, becoming a grantee, doing 10 pullups, you name it.
I suppose for me, it's finding some sort of meaning in life - it's been rather elusive, and makes it hard to care about any of those; though I can do ten pullups.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#39> Maybe your advice requires a lot of willpower. Is willpower even a large factor in habit formation? Isn’t that just a myth? > Why? Probably because running is hard. I maintain that if you run the right way, it isn’t nearly as hard as it first seems. But it’s still hard. Buying headphones or installing an air purifier is incredibly easy. Yeah running is hard. That’s what I thought for the first 38 years of my life.…
> Is willpower even a large factor in habit formation? Isn’t that just a myth?
I'm not sure, but I do believe there is a difference in what it takes to form a habit by having to do something as opposed to forming a habit by stopping doing something. I think one of them takes willpower but not sure which one.
Re: Why doesn't advice work?
#40Old geezer angles: There's a long and winding road between "they followed your advice right away" and "giving them advice had no effect". Your advice, or some of it, could become their Plan B. Or something that they try a time or few in the future. Or something they pass on to a third person. Or a memory of your own preferences. Or part of how they start behaving when they're in a different situation, or getting up toward your age. Or an anecdote when they're speaking at your memorial.
And the tone and perspective of your advice counts for at least as much as the advice itself.
ADDED: How you react to people following, or not following, your advice is part of that "tone and perspective" stuff.