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This article introduces a perspective of self-improvement to remember when listening to blatantly incorrect advice from the ignorant.
Listening to advice you’ve heard already is an exercise of refraining from cutting off the speaking individual. Especially on matters important to you and trivial to those spewing superficial advice your way, the extent – or lack thereof – of consideration on their part is often evident.
Naturally, you’ve likely considered important decisions or directions in greater depth than those offering advice from the sidelines. What’s even worse, are those who not only aren’t privy to the nuances at play whilst giving advice, but who are objectively incorrect in what they’re telling you.
The Boundaries of Their Understanding Is Important Information
Advice-giving is an activity which is infused with pride. When making the initial decision to offer advice, the average individual seeks to have their advice accepted by way of it being labeled true. They often present information they’ve labeled right in their own mind. In essence they’re giving you the best they have regarding the topic at hand.
Advice-giving is an activity that average-minded individuals are not frequently dishonest in. The desire to be right in the advice they give seems to overpower any manipulative or coercive plans they have for your missteps or downfalls.
The activity of listening to advice you know is wrong transitions from an activity of gaining information about the topic in discussion, to gaining information about the individual offering you advice.
Even if they are acting with bad intentions in giving you advice which can lead to your missteps, hearing it out, mapping their intentions, and filing this information for future reference seems to be the best course of action.
For those who want the best for you but are misguided: Hearing out and encouraging the advice emanating from them arms you with clear evidence of the extent of their knowledge surrounding that topic. It is a simple way to accurately gauge an individual’s level of knowledge on the subject for future consideration.
You’ll come to learn lessons in wrong turns they make in their judgment, and mistakes to avoid prior to convincing yourself you know enough about a subject to offer advice to others.
Future plans surrounding individuals who display their ignorance through their well-intentioned advice will be better armed with information from listening to them fully.
Labeling Someone’s Advice As Wrong From the Get-Go Is Social Malpractice
Similar to how sure individuals offering incorrect advice are about their advice being right and true, rejecting that advice from the get-go carries the stench of that same over-confidence.
Incorrect advice is proven wrong with time, not by argument. Your experience around the topic may have benefited from time’s passing, but the individual presenting their best advice has no way of accepting that feeling without going through the same experiences themselves.
You place yourself in a position of attaining less information when cutting someone off offering incorrect, ignorant advice. You will discourage them from revealing more about their way of thinking going forward, and will label yourself a hard-headed, self-assured intellectual entity.
Remember that information is not only found in the words that someone speaks or writes. Information absent from dialogue is information in itself. Mapping the abilities, tendencies, and intellect of those around you is greatly aided by encouraging the divulsion of their – perhaps ignorant – thoughts.