Take My Advice: Don't Take My Advice

I almost never give advice. That is because the devil is in the details, and most of the details are in the context. Context is not rapidly appreciated by an advisor because it is very rare that any two people experience the same context. Similar, yes, but not the same. It is in our nature as humans to over fit our experience to that of others. We see similarities and assume self-relevance where there is none. “Yes, that seems very familiar. I know that situation!” This lets us interact with other humans and it allows us to generalize, which are powerful social and cognitive survival tools, and yet it can also lead to prejudice and pseudoscience. But I'll write more about that later.

So when I serve on advisory boards, I merely point out possibilities or analysis that can enlighten. I rarely advise. Perhaps that is why my tenure on advisory boards is short. Many people just want to be told what to do. It disheartens me why they don’t want to think more for themselves.

I say this because I may say things in this blog that people interpret as advice. It is not. I don't know you. And even if I did, I am highly unqualified to give advice to you. At the very least, consider that my situation is fairly unique: among other things, I have more money and freedom than 99.9999% of the population. So that makes me an outlier.

Another reason to take advice here with a grain of salt: I am posting anonymously. This automatically means you should mistrust what I have to say. I will distort certain events to preserve my anonymity. I might even make things up! So, caveat lector!