Perhaps I’m overenthusiastic about this post since the topic of advice has been somewhat of a fixation of mine recently but the points about correct advice being specific and the overfitted and underfitted distinction strike me as very useful for querying if what has worked for others will translate over to one’s current situation.
One thing I might quibble with is the phrase “correct solution” and even then it’s not really a quibble, because a correct solution is any solution that has more (relevant) benefits than costs. However there are degrees of correctness, this of course overlaps with overfitting and underfitting. There are often multiple correct solutions to any given problem. Some are better fitted than others. But for advice to be correct all it needs to do is “work”—that is the advisee needs to be better off for having followed the advice than if they didn’t.
An analogy that comes to mind is I often use a swiss army knife to cut things like masking-tape or strings from clothes, whereas a pair of scissors might be more effective and easier. The knife is still a correct solution as it does a satisfactory job. Scissors might be “more correct”.
A flow on thought from this how correct solutions can be arrived at. The more expeditious method is to share the situation with a expert in a relevant domain who will then draw upon their expertise, understanding, and modelling of the world/domain to offer advice, or the slower method of arriving at a correct solution one’s self. Both getting expert advice and discovering it without help as you point out require specific knowledge of the problem.
Repeated experience has taught me vague or underfitted advice is often a symptom of vague descriptions of the problem by the advisee.
The interesting thing is that even in the absence of an expert, the more specific someone can get about defining their problem—the easier it is to find correct solutions.
I have a bad habit of being vague and underfitted: I’ll ask myself a question like “why can’t I network?” to which I might get an answer like “because you don’t promote yourself enough”. Whereas if I focused on a specific problem and gave situational knowledge like “I’ve looked on Facebook and Meetup but cannot find any groups or events which suggest themselves as being appropriate contexts for finding...etc.” the specificity drastically improves the fit of advice and the chance of arriving at a correct solution. Whether the solution concerns which search terms to use. A change in expectation or belief about the idea of appropriateness. Looking on a different website. etc. etc.
Perhaps I’m overenthusiastic about this post since the topic of advice has been somewhat of a fixation of mine recently but the points about correct advice being specific and the overfitted and underfitted distinction strike me as very useful for querying if what has worked for others will translate over to one’s current situation.
One thing I might quibble with is the phrase “correct solution” and even then it’s not really a quibble, because a correct solution is any solution that has more (relevant) benefits than costs. However there are degrees of correctness, this of course overlaps with overfitting and underfitting. There are often multiple correct solutions to any given problem. Some are better fitted than others. But for advice to be correct all it needs to do is “work”—that is the advisee needs to be better off for having followed the advice than if they didn’t.
An analogy that comes to mind is I often use a swiss army knife to cut things like masking-tape or strings from clothes, whereas a pair of scissors might be more effective and easier. The knife is still a correct solution as it does a satisfactory job. Scissors might be “more correct”.
A flow on thought from this how correct solutions can be arrived at. The more expeditious method is to share the situation with a expert in a relevant domain who will then draw upon their expertise, understanding, and modelling of the world/domain to offer advice, or the slower method of arriving at a correct solution one’s self. Both getting expert advice and discovering it without help as you point out require specific knowledge of the problem.
Repeated experience has taught me vague or underfitted advice is often a symptom of vague descriptions of the problem by the advisee.
The interesting thing is that even in the absence of an expert, the more specific someone can get about defining their problem—the easier it is to find correct solutions.
I have a bad habit of being vague and underfitted: I’ll ask myself a question like “why can’t I network?” to which I might get an answer like “because you don’t promote yourself enough”. Whereas if I focused on a specific problem and gave situational knowledge like “I’ve looked on Facebook and Meetup but cannot find any groups or events which suggest themselves as being appropriate contexts for finding...etc.” the specificity drastically improves the fit of advice and the chance of arriving at a correct solution. Whether the solution concerns which search terms to use. A change in expectation or belief about the idea of appropriateness. Looking on a different website. etc. etc.