Independent Thinking

One thing that I have struggled with over time (especially these past 2.5 years at college), is the concept of advice.

Independent ThinkingOne thing that I have struggled with over time (especially these past 2.5 years at college), is the concept of advice.


One thing that I have struggled with over time (especially these past 2.5 years at college), is the concept of advice.

I used to be pro-advice. I used to think that we should spread good advice as far as possible and convince everyone to follow it.

I probably used to write about a lot of advice that I heard from other people.

But then I stopped liking advice. I actually started being “anti-advice.” I thought that most all advice was hindsight bias and just a product of someone’s ego.

And then I came to where I am at today — where I still do not believe in most advice. But I do think some can be valuable when actionable and specific.

The whole point of this transition is not that you should agree with me, but rather that this process of learning to develop my own conviction around an important part of life.

This process occurred on my own — as I learned to filter incoming noise from friends and the internet.

I used to think that we should “pull people’s teeth” to get them to do things. I used to think we should influence others to follow a certain path.

I now completely disagree.

I think everyone should think for themselves and helps them get to whatever it is they are optimizing for.


Originally published at gonen.blog.

Tagged in Advice

By jordangonen on October 28, 2017.

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Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.