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Comment by sandgiant | Hacker News Reader

That's odd. I found almost every point on that list immediately actionable.

- Use the work "but" less often (I can practice this today with my partner). - Start looking for a new job if you work for someone you can't see yourself becoming (I can start looking for ads right away). - Spend more time with fewer people (I could make a phone call right now). - Try to forgive more often (there a conflicts in my life that I could get out of right now if I could forgive them). - Criticize in private, praise in public (I'm guilty of the opposite at work, this is a good reminder that I should try to improve).

I'm not sure that "banal" is a good measure for whether something is important or not. I often ignore banal things because I forget, or don't want to remember. Having a list might actually help. Although I agree that having a list of banalities is not enough to make a difference. You definitely have to put in work as well. Thanks for reminding me.

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People have different actionspaces.

(Which seems obvious, but this is the reason that lots of advice sounds banal.)

Care to elaborate? I'm curious about what exactly you mean by that.

The same piece of advice can be life changing, completely irrelevant, or anywhere in between; depending on the life the recipient has lived before receiving it.

So it’s natural that some readers will scroll through any list of advice and find little of use, while others are able to put the words to good use.

The actionspace of super mario is {left, right, down, up} X { jump, shoot }.

Meanwhile, lots of advice is "first kill those turtles, go through the castle, and save the princess. easy".

"Only have good bosses ... Only work for role models" ... ?

Goals should be communicated in terms of end states, but everyone already agrees on the goals. Advise needs to be actionable.

Thanks, I understand now what you meant by actionspace.

> this is the reason that lots of advice sounds banal.

This is the part I'm not getting. Definition of `banal` is:

> so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring.

Obviously, personal circumstances apply to every single piece of advice ever given to random strangers on the internet. For example, I don't even remember when was the last time I saw a street musician. Doesn't mean that the one-dollar thing is banal. It may be irrelevant to my life, but that is a totally different thing. It would be banal if the behavior suggested was an extremely common social norm... which it isn't, and some people argue the advice is wrong. Which is good! Discourse is healthy.

> If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar

if i am a child, with no money, or am un- or underemployed with very little money in the form of disposable income, then this advice is not actually actionable.

not to mention that it is also wrong - you do not owe the street performer anything, no matter how long you stop and listen for. they are not entitled to anything just because they made a choice to perform in a public place. and this is not to suggest i have never, or will not in future, donate to buskers etc. - but it is always an active choice...

It's easily actionable: if you can't pay the dollar, don't listen to the music.

(Or, ignore the advice, if you disagree. That's fine too! But that's not the fault of it being non-actionable).

Kinda silly since buskers usually perform at places where people are usually anyway (such as a train platform) and I can't turn off my ears.

"Hanging out somewhere where there happens to be music played" is quite different from "listening". The advice only applies to the latter.

The advice was aiming at the moral level. You missed that completely, unfortunately.

> they are not entitled to anything just because they made a choice to perform in a public place.

And you are making a choice of whether or not you support them if you found so much pleasure in listening to them that you chose to spend over a minute listening to them instead of walking past them. You are entitled to just move on. Whether it's the right thing to do is a different question and only for yourself to decide.

no, the bit about having no money was a response to a claim that the advice was 'actionable' and i pointed out a situation where in believed it was not actionable dute to practical financial constraints.

however, my statement about entitlements of the performer being non existant along with the listener having no obligation to pay the performer because they stayed for some amount of time, was made on an moral level. i also believe it is a morally 'good' thing to compensate the performer if they provide you with entertainment, i just do not believe there is any obligation placed on you to do this by the performer. like you say, it is for me alone as the listener to decide. i objected to the use of the word 'owe' in the advice, basically.

hopefully that's a bit clearer...

>no, the bit about having no money was a response to a claim that the advice was 'actionable' and i pointed out a situation where in believed it was not actionable dute to practical financial constraints

The advice is not about giving 1 USD. The advice is to giving something back in return. It does not have to be money. A thank you, applause, a hat off, a flower or a heartly smile will do.

Yes, that is clearer, thanks.

> i objected to the use of the word 'owe' in the advice, basically.

I suppose the original post does not state the "owing" in an absolute sense but as a recommendation to shape your morals so that they include that it's good to feel that something should be returned. Using the word "owe" for that is suitable, though it does not mean that everybody you see in the situation would "owe" money to the performer.

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