Why Doesn't Advice Work?

The economics angle is the one you want to expand on.

You see, Jim is an economist.

When he gets a piece of advice, he thinks about game theory. He recognizes there is information asymmetry between the advisor and the advisee. He thinks about whether your incentives are aligned. He thinks about whether there's any cost in producing the advice, vs following it. He thinks about further-round effects of you potentially becoming dependent on the advisor for future decisions, and the principal-agent perspectives in that relationship.

Jim is a dismal character.

At least in my life, the two most frequent issues about advice being worthless were it either required too much willpower, so any progress was lost as soon as focus shifted, or the "solution" offered by the advice was the same as telling someone "so don't have the problem." Actually, I'd classify the willpower issue as a subset of the "so don't have the problem" problem.

>In ancient India, there was a long-running feud between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Duryodhana, leader of the Kauravas, planned a huge war to end things forever. Krishna warned that this would lead to the total destruction of both sides and made every effort to forge a peace. Duryodhana refused to listen and launched his war. There were 4 million warriors at the start. After 18 days, all but 11 were dead.

Isn't this mythology? Trying to get a rational explanation for actors' actions feels moot, since they are programmed that way by the author of the story.

A better example is here: https://youtu.be/DBrAlKilXqM?t=74

The problem is compounded by uncertainty, basically fear, and hopelessness or laziness.

If, you knew for certain, that Problem X is solvable with Effort Y with enough of Resource Z - would you act upon the advice?

If anyone has given advice that was not heeded it can be frustrating. All the advice and information exists to solve your problem yet if it remains - why?

Losing weight is an example of a known problem with a solution. People do the equation - the Effort Y is often variable that is lacking because the Effort is 18 hours of consistent, positive behavior, for weeks or months in a row.

As a parent, I’ve recognized advice I’ve given as advice I received when younger. I always tried to take good advice, but so often the words can only truly be understood, to their depth, by having compatible experience. The same words have tremendously different meaning to someone that has been there vs someone who’s never experienced the topic. After pondering about this, I don’t think there is a ‘fix’. We do our best to help, but have to patiently wait for the other person to gain their own experience. THEN nuances can be given as advice.

"I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."–Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

2 kinds of people in the world, those who will work and those who don't. Those who work have long gotten over the inability to accept advice and criticism. Those who don't are unable to accept advice. Advice is hostile to them. There are cultures where high % of the people are like this.

Once you accept this, you must figure out which a person is and adjust how to give advice. You can straight up ask, but that makes for boringness. Then you approach it with positivity and excitement; speaking in regards to that person's wants.

You'll be shocked what kind of happens around you in the periphery afterwards. A positive and negative reaction occurs, you might call it karma or what comes around goes around. Playing with advice can be dangerous, which is why it's a hostile thing for some cultures.

Advice addresses one or two parts of a system in flux. Motivation, habits, beliefs, understanding, experience, skills, etc. then a variety of issues appear to happen to the system. In reality, a lot of what "happens" is predictable based on the system, poor sleep leading to mistakes, etc, but it appears to the person inside the system to be a complex machine on a moving playing field. People also greatly misunderstand what is required to effect change, as simply as poorly realising Murphy's fifth law, "Before you can do something, you must do something else."

Advice and verbal axioms like "eat more vegetables" probably don't work because they don't operate at the level of emotions and imagery, they're just words. People are not as rational as they like to think they are.

I believe a good bit of it relates to "switching costs." Consumer brands that offer a new product to compete with an existing one often do it at a discounted price. The companies essentially must pay a fee to the consumer for the time, effort, and uncertainty related to trying something different.

An example is wanting someone to read a book you think they'll like. It costs you nothing to give this advice. If anything, you stand to gain in something like reputation or ego if it's helpful or something they enjoy. But it potentially costs time they they might've spent enjoying something else even more.

just like people like to talk about themselves, i think people want the satisfaction of knowing that someone acted on their advice.

one time i gave a friend some advice and he did the exact opposite. oh, the satisfaction! xD

Because pain is the best teacher. I have found though that I’m able to learn other people’s lessons. With empathy I’m able to feel someone else’s pain and learn from it.

> Internet people seem to think you should divorce your spouse for misdeeds as minor as forgetting to buy shampoo

I'm glad someone else noticed this.

Advice works well when coupled with incentives.

If F=ma, then the "money" coupled with the "advice" characterizes the amount of force delivered.

Money here covers the spectrum of incentives from cash to sex to perks.

The wiser one is, the more prone to hoovering up good advice one likely is, and the less "m" is needed.

I think people want to be in charge of their own life, and taking advice is a step away from that. They have to give up on "muddling through" by themselves or surrender their agency to follow advice.

yeah, and a lot of advice is "forgot shampoo? divorce!"