Your suggested interpretation, that asking for advice means you're not an outlier on what you're asking about or you'd already know, strikes me as a very toxic

Your suggested interpretation, that asking for advice means you're not an outlier on what you're asking about or you'd already know, strikes me as a very toxic ideal. It's a story of my father. As far as I know, GF Gauss was the greatest mathematician since Archimedes and also a rather toxic person. And there are a lot of ways you can interpret the quote. I think it's not so much an ideal but statement that actually society, even other prodigies, aren't necessarily going to support you going your own way. That isn't good imo but it's realistic. "Tough love" isn't necessarily the best teacher but it's certainly here.