The problem with giving advice on the internet

One of the amazing things about the internet is that it lets anyone and everyone communicate at a scale heretofore unknown. One of the biggest problems with the internet is that it lets anyone and everyone communicate at a scale heretofore unknown.

Most of the advice that I see bandied about on the internet basically sucks. I thought I'd write a bit about why I think this is the case, and how one can develop a better set of heuristics to consider any unsolicited advice one may encounter on the internet.

But first let's explain what I am talking about. I am not talking about feel good tweets such as this, from Netflix's co-founder:

Marc and Reed Hastings successfully competed against Blockbuster, as we all well know by now. Blockbuster is no more, and Netflix still exists. But note what he does not do here: he does not say "I successfully competed against Blockbuster; therefore, you should go out and found your own disruptive company to take on whatever legacy company you want to take on."

A lot of entrepreneurial types will say that everyone should found a company. The logic boils down to: "because this thing worked for me, this thing will work for you." This is pretty crappy advice, and even worse thinking. And therein lies the problem with most advice that I see on the internet. The person conveying the advice thinks the advice is more generalizeable than it really is.

Whether someone should pursue an entrepreneurial path depends on many different variables, among them being: one's appetite for risk, one's need for a steady income, one's energy levels, one's health, one's family life, one's comfort with ambiguity, etc. "Be entrepreneurial!" is no better advice than "be beautfiul!" It's great if you've got it, but if you don't, that advice sucks and is useless.

And this is the heuristic that I recommend people apply to advice they see on the internet: is the advice generalizeable to a broad set of people? Or does it only apply to a subset of people? This sounds as if I am saying that the only useful advice is vague advice which can apply to a large group of people. But that's not really accurate. Here's an example of generalizable advice:

If you read through her thread, you will see that she addresses problems that affect everyone:

• whose opinions you should care about
• remove harmful people from your life
• anticipate criticism from those who don't like your choices
• etc.

Everyone has to deal with these issues, and advice about how to deal with them is broadly applicable. Few people should be entrepreneurs, on the other hand.

Knowing how to discern the difference between advice that is truly generalizable and that which is not, is critical for determining who to pay attention to on the interent.