Life Advice
unoptimal and
Life Advice
unoptimal and
on the futility of advice
The more grownup I get, the more I wonder about giving advice. I do best when listening to youngsters tell me truths about the world we’ve made for them. It feels sometimes like we all have to talk all the time, in ways at once aphoristic and immediate, so lately I try to be at least as often on receive as on transmit.
I’m not great at advice—I share Oscar Wilde’s opinion about it, for the most part—but with that caveat I’d say this: don’t be afraid of seeking. Don’t be afraid of your own depth. Don’t dumb yourself down to be less threatening to others. Don’t let the shallow present monoculture shame you into vacuousness.