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That one strikes me as hindsight advice. As in, something happened to work well for me, so I'm listing it as advice for others, even though it's likely not rea
by hfdgiutdryg 8y ago
That one strikes me as hindsight advice. As in, something happened to work well for me, so I'm listing it as advice for others, even though it's likely not really actionable. Not quite "win the lottery", but for every ten people who seek a mentor, I'm going to guess that nine of them either can't find one or find one who doesn't contribute to their success.
- fjsolwmv 8y agoIt's the difference between "buy a lottery ticket" and "buy a winning lottery ticket". The latter is complete garbage advice, but the former is good advice, if lottery tickets are going cheap enough to make the expected value positive.
- throwaway37585 8y agoDoesn’t this assume that trying to find a great mentor has non-positive expected value, which is probably not true?
- hfdgiutdryg 8y agoWell, if it's time better spent on other things, or if the mentor gives bad advice (or worse, actively undermines you), then it's a bad idea. I don't see any evidence that a positive outcome is any more likely than a negative one, but we tend to only hear about the positive ones.
- throwaway37585 8y ago> if the mentor gives bad advice (or worse, actively undermines you), then it's a bad idea. We’re talking about expectation here, not clairvoyance or hindsight. > I don't see any evidence that a positive outcome is any more likely than a negative one You don’t see any evidence for seeking mentorship to accomplish your goals? Is this what you’re saying?
- afarrell 8y agoIts advice that is useful if you interpret it as "keep an eye out for things which will help you actionably do X". But its also a category of advice I find personally frustrating, so I'm just trying to accelerate the process of finding those resources.