Usually when someone asks for advice about what to do, they're really looking for facts and information. If I present a problem to a bunch of friends, the chan

Usually when someone asks for advice about what to do, they're really looking for facts and information. If I present a problem to a bunch of friends, the chance that I'll just take their list of suggestions and pick one to run with is minimal. What is valuable are the various tidbits of information that come up during the discussion. Often, it's information that I wouldn't have thought to ask about directly.