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Why doesn’t advice work?

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Why doesn’t advice work?

Dynomight,

5 min read
7 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

If you feel like a modern-day Cassandra, find out why your advice falls on deaf ears.

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Recommendation

According to Greek mythology, Apollo, the god of truth and prophecy, granted Cassandra the gift of foresight in an effort to woo her. But when she rebuffed his advances, Apollo placed a wicked curse on Cassandra so that no one would believe her prophecies. Despite Cassandra’s warnings of impending disaster, her advice went unheeded. If you ever feel like a modern-day Cassandra — that is, you dole out words of wisdom that are subsequently disregarded — then blogger Dynomight has some words of advice for you, which you, too, will likely ignore.

Summary

People frequently ignore reasonable, well-intentioned advice.

Has a friend ever asked you for advice? Maybe you took the time to put together a thoughtful, sage response and delivered it with kindness and good intentions, but in the end, your friend ignored your guidance and suffered the fallout. If only your friend had listened to you! So why did your companion ignore your counsel?

Sometimes your advice is inadvertently bad.

Occasionally, unbeknownst to you, your well-meaning advice is terrible. If your friends followed it, they might be worse off. Consider that all of President Kennedy’s Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended air strikes on Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba in 1962. Or perhaps your friends fail to divulge the full extent of the situation. If you were privy to all the nitty-gritty details, you might proffer different suggestions.

Nevertheless, sage counsel often gets overlooked. Have you ever dished out great advice, only for your friends to ignore it, suffer the consequences, and later regurgitate your own...

About the Author

Dynomight is an anonymous blogger who writes about life, science, society, and technology. 

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