when you’re researching a “how to” topic, how do you tell the good advice from the bad advice?
Before advice is tested, it may not be possible to know if the advice is good or bad. So I look for qualities that make advice testable.
Bad advice will cost more when it fails than pay when it succeeds. Bad advice will explain too much and thus be hard to measure if it’s working or not (‘prayer works, so if I just pray a little harder… ’). Bad advice will involve people who aren’t consenting or informed about what I’m doing. Bad advice is often a package deal (‘if you’re a feminist, you have to be a vegan’). Bad advice is unaccountable (‘no, it’s different when I do it’ / ‘I was only following orders’).
Some of what is left over from that winnowing process will be good advice.
“I conceive of nothing, in religion, science, or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while.”—Charles Fort, ‘Lo!’ (1932)
Before advice is tested, it may not be possible to know if the advice is good or bad. So I look for qualities that make advice testable.
Bad advice will cost more when it fails than pay when it succeeds. Bad advice will explain too much and thus be hard to measure if it’s working or not (‘prayer works, so if I just pray a little harder… ’). Bad advice will involve people who aren’t consenting or informed about what I’m doing. Bad advice is often a package deal (‘if you’re a feminist, you have to be a vegan’). Bad advice is unaccountable (‘no, it’s different when I do it’ / ‘I was only following orders’).
Some of what is left over from that winnowing process will be good advice.
“I conceive of nothing, in religion, science, or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while.”—Charles Fort, ‘Lo!’ (1932)