Anonymous advice: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want your name on?

Everything seems like common politically correct advice straight from self help lectures.

I was expecting stuff like, You'll be on your death bed for a week at most and probably high on drugs. Do not plan life for the end 5 mins.

If work matters more than family now, chose work.

This one made me laugh

> Don’t follow general advice blindly The issue with career advice in general, and it’s such an issue for 80,000 Hours, is how insanely context-relative it is. Not just from person to person, but even within a person’s life.

I wrote the same for designers on my personal site, (separated from my real name), if anyone's interested: http://kradeelav.com/designer-resources.html

“Be an entertaining interviewee” is a great one. Doesn’t work for the leetcode grind interviews, but turning on a bit of charm and honest entertainment goes pretty far. People like working with people they like.

The vast majority of these seem like good, solid pieces of advice. I don’t get the reluctance to put one’s name on them.

(2019)

Cheat, lie, sabotage and steal whenever it can help you advance. Meritocracy is a myth.

The only reward for hard work is more work.

Also, stock options are worthless unless you’re a co-founder.

I'm less inclined to take this advice (though much of it is fine) because there is no name attached to it. Why would I take an unknown person's advice on something? How do I know I can trust them if I don't know anything about their career?

Even more importantly, I don't know the context behind any of this advice, which is needed to process it appropriately.

Some examples:

> If you need a PhD, get through it ASAP.

Is this really good advice? I would encourage people to be extremely skeptical about getting PhDs - i.e., work in the real world first - and then if you still really want to do one, do it well, so that you have a shot at the kind of post-PhD opportunities that would make it worth it.

> Develop specific skills and think about specialising early.

The anecdote on this is weird and I'm not sure I agree (depends on what they mean by "specialize"). If by specialize, they mean "major in something practical" sure I agree with that. If by specialize, they mean, "aim to become a expert in some niche in your field in college", disagree.

> Be wary of slow feedback loops.

Agree mostly, but disagree with the specific examples given. If you know you want to be a lawyer, go to law school.

> Be strategic in your career decisions.

Agree, but the opposite advice would also be fine: careers are long and complex, so don't attempt to be overly strategic early on.

> Think about going to a startup.

This just looks like startup shilling.

> When you’re great at your job, no one’s advice is that useful.

Not sure this is true.

> Know the relevant senior people.

Not sure this is THAT important early on in your career.

> Be irrationally optimistic.

Useful if you are in sales or a founder, but for most other careers (e.g., engineering), I would advise rational optimism.