And Accepting Advice
The world is filled with people who are anxious to serve in an advisory capacity. Charlie Brown on the baseball mound surrounded by players
It is always foolish to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal. Oscar Wilde
It is true that the world is full of advice givers. It is also true that giving good advice is not always welcome, and sometimes dangerous. (Socrates was a Greek philosopher who went around giving people advice; the people poisoned him). The world is also full of advice about advice. This is because it is easer to give advice than to take it.
When Sigmund Freund was asked what was difficult, he said: To know one’s self. And what was easy” To advise another. So advice-giving is apparently easy but unwelcome. And those who need it most seem to like it least. Philosopher John Collins explains: To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.
I have been giving advice about decision making for years. And I find it easy to do. I hope it is fair to say that I read the decision making advice of others and I don’t find it hard to take. I probably do find it difficult to take advice about matters other than decision making.
This blog is an introduction to my next blog (very soon) about the current status of my decision making advice. I will be reflecting on my habit of giving such advice. And I will be passing on my 50 plus years of good advice to you.
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. Oscar Wilde
Positive Uncertainty 