People just love to give unsolicited advice. They’re annoying as they are but one thing that I really don’t like with people who do so is how many of them lead with “Tingnan mo ako…” (better translated as “Compare yourself to my case…”). These people just don’t factor in what can be a fundamental disconnect between their situations and others’.

For example, this one acquaintance of mine asked me why I don’t put up a business of my own just like what he’s done. “Ako nga nakaya ko, ikaw pa,” he said. (“I was able to do it, you should too.”) Fact of the matter is he had help from his upper middle class family to put up the capital and the ground work. He should know he was talking to an orphan from a lower middle class family who never had assets or wealth to be inherited.

Or this other acquaintance who dispensed advice (to do this and to do that) without even hearing the real deal behind my situation. Not like she’d be able to relate anyway. Trust fund babies just can’t. People who haven’t tasted failures (note the plural) or faced desperation and adversity really don’t have much to offer in terms of “wisdom.”

Lifehacker tips work because they’re oriented to cater to a wide audience. You can’t be too surgical with a shotgun. Not because you’ve been able to catch a mouse with cheese, means that you’d be able to bait a cat with it. Even if mice and cats are both mammals. Context counts.

And as a know-it-all who has every tendency to be the type of person I hate, I’ve decided only to give personal advice to people who ask for them.

Here’s a pretty good article from 30 Sleeps on dealing with unsolicited advice.

Check out these other posts:

1. Low-ball us with low wages