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greyenlightenment  investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...  6mo ago (greyenlightenment.com)   2064 thread views

Why does advice work so poorly?

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Good post.

I think where a lot of people get stuck is in waiting for the perfect piece of advice.

Line I read that stuck with me that I think applies beyond the specific instance - "Too many get stuck in analysis paralysis, worrying about the “right” source of knowledge: CLRS, TAoCP, Sedgewick, Skiena, Roughgarden, Dasgupta… you don’t need to obsess over these. Just pick something, get a foundation, and immediately move on to practice. You will learn everything from pattern recognition" (its from https://www.bowtiedfox.com/p/faang)

It's what I was trying to get at, but am not quite eloquent enough to put into words well, I think when you're young (at least I did when I was young), there's this mindset that if I follow out suboptimal advice, I'm wasting my time or I'm screwing myself over.

Being older, I think you learn a lot just by iterating over a lot of different things.

I should exercise and eat better than I do, that said, unless you're a professional athlete, starting down any path is 80% of it.

Analysis paralysis is definitely a part of it. I feel like there are twin traps, one of analysis, the other the fact that continued inaction seems to have a momentum all it's own. Analysis paralysis might get you into the trap of inaction, but inaction's own gravity keeps you there.

But there is also this aspect where our modern society seems to be producing and entire oversocialized professional and expert class. They're risk averse and initiative averse to a degree which stifles all human actions, and they are supposed to be our betters to whom we listen.

I would trust the blue collar BJJ coach who barely graduated highschool far more than the PhD trying to give me advice. And on a lot more than BJJ at that.

And on a lot more than BJJ at that.

I realize I'm doing that annoying thing where I tell a story and then add details to it in a later reply, but you'd be very wrong to do so. The amount of absolutely horrifyingly bad advice on divorce, real estate purchases, finances, and car repair...it's actually shocking.

The others I can see but car repair? I'm curious!

A trivial example is "You should learn to repair your car" while ignoring that we don't live in the 90s anymore and most new cars cannot be repaired without special tools and software (sometimes even by third party professionals).

Define "new"? I personally tend to drive pretty old things, but my spouse has had a 2015 and 2022 that I've never had to outsource anything on.

  1. Standard American redneck brand loyalty. One guy is convinced that Jeep makes reliable vehicles, like the grand Cherokee.

  2. there's a guy who literally didn't believe in oil changes. He has bought a long series of PoS $3k cars that all inevitably quickly break down irreparably within a year or two. Oil changes are a ripoff! The mechanic just wants you to throw away good money for no reason because the car is going to break down in a year or two anyway!

  3. On the opposite end, some truly poorly modified civics and f150s

  4. Some awful and idiotic ways to rip off your insurance company or auto repair shops.

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