I think that people in general are horrible advice givers. Whenever I have a problem people will usually just give me some generic form of advice that doesn't really mean anything. Sometimes it makes me feel better knowing someone has tried so it has some value, but the advice itself is usually meaningless. Here are some examples
A lot of people will say things like "Just be yourself". This might be the worst piece of advice you give anyone, especially if you add "ignore what other people think of you" to the end. First of all, know one really knows who they are. People change all the time and so do their wants and needs. It's almost impossible for a person to know what he or she really wants at any given moment. Also ignoring what other people think is a horrible idea. That is probably what Jeffrey Dahmer's parents said to him when he was a young lad.
Another piece of advice that makes no sense is "do what you think is right". This is horrible advice. It's this kind of advice that makes people stop thinking about what they are doing. If people stop thinking and just start acting, the consequences could be terrible. Jeffrey Dahmer probably got the same advice when he was a kid.
Another saying that sounds good but isn't is "do your best" or "try working harder. It makes sense at first but if you think about it, it is not the most sound advice. Working hard does not always give results. For instance, maybe an athlete tries to hard and gets himself injured. How do you ever know when you are doing your best? Besides, sometimes doing your best is a bad idea if the goal isn't a good one to start with. Hitler probably tried doing his best and look how that turned out.
I think that the only real piece of advice that is always relevant is "be smarter". It might sound to simple but it really is the only thing that makes sense. Whenever someone makes a mistake it is because they were not smart enough to make the right decision. The whole point of this blog is to say that I don't think intelligence is valued enough in society. We value characteristics like hard work that really doesn't mean anything. We should be working smarter not harder.