I have a joke with my brother: How do you win a race against Usain Bolt? Just run faster than him! Every time one gives the other a technically corre

I have a joke with my brother: How do you win a race against Usain Bolt? Just run faster than him! Every time one gives the other a technically correct but perfectly inapplicable advice, we just answer "yeah, run faster". It's our own private joke of a shortcut keeping our BS in check. The thing is, when you are giving advice, you are usually missing a lot of context. Context you may not know exists, and that the other person won't or can't share with you. Maybe the other person doesn't even realize this context is needed or is aware of it. But if you had this context, you would understand how unpractical your advice is to this particular situation, because it's too generic. Too theoretical. After all, most smokers know they should quit, most fat people know they should lose weight. If it was just about hearing the right path, we would have little problems we can't solve. But knowing where you should go tells you less than expected about the path ahead because of the aforementioned missing context, such as where you start from and the obstacles in your way, whether you'll be alone on the road or with friends or wild animals, if you have to carry a big bag, if you need to forage for food and if it rains. That doesn't make advice useless. But you should not expect to see the effect right now. Rather, they may contribute to a self-realization that the person has to build for themself, adapted to themself. It takes time, it's hard, and there are a lot of other things that fight for being a priority. Assuming it was good advice to begin with of course, and there are not that many good advice to go around.