WE ADVISE YOU TO BE WARY OF ADVICE

FEATURED POSTS

November 19, 2019

– Photo by Ken Whytock on Foter.com / CC BY-NC

If you believe in the theory of Supply and Demand – and really who doesn’t – you already know that the more plentiful a commodity is, the cheaper it becomes.

For instance, gold is a commodity. What makes it valuable, is that there isn’t that much of it. What makes gold even more valuable is when an artisan takes the raw material and fashions it into a beautiful ring or necklace. It is no longer a commodity, it is a work of art.

Advice is liked that. Everybody has an opinion and few are shy about sharing it. That’s why people warn you that advice is cheap, which of course is its own kind of advice.

What transforms advice from a commodity to something of value is when the person giving advice to you knows what he or she is talking about and is kind enough to share it with you.

For example:

DON’T BELIEVE any advice that relies on statistics to make its point. Common sense is almost always better than statistics. It’s almost impossible to know all the details about how the data was gathered, who gathered it, and what role personal prejudice and motive played in putting together the conclusions.

On the other hand, in the rare incidents in which common sense turns out to be not correct, you need to be willing to look at the other alternatives.

MY BUSINESS PARTNER once advised me, during a tense time when a lot of money was coming in and a lot of money was going out to pay bills, that it wasn’t really about cash – it was about “cash flow.” This was of course complete nonsense – 90 percent wishful thinking and 10 percent blind hope – but we still laugh about it today.

THE TRUTHFULLNESS OF ADVICE doesn’t necessarily make it valuable. I had a fellow vet give me a street-wise tip about dealing with the Veterans Administration. When you are trying to score some drugs to get you through the night, never tell them “you keep thinking about killing people.” That will get you in deep shit, he warned.

“Tell them, you dream about killing people. You can’t help what you dream, man.”

I thought it was good advice if I wanted free drugs. Sadly, I did not.

NEVER TRUST anybody who says “trust me.” In my experience, the words “trust me,” translates in real life to “I’m going to tell you a lie.” If you don’t already trust him, certainly don’t trust him after he tells you to trust him.

This manifests itself in a variety of ways. When Google promotes itself with the term, “Do No Evil,” watch your back. What they mean is “do no evil,” unless there is a good reason to do so. Other manifestations of the same sentiment are auto dealers trying to convince you to buy the undercoating; realtors urging you to come down $10,000 on your price, costing them maybe $300 in commission; and those Nigerian princes, who always need some fast cash.

NEVER TAKE anything you read in the news or see on TV at face value. Across the political and aesthetic spectrum, news reporters and editors have prejudices, hidden agendas and sometimes weird perspectives. And as in all occupations from college professors to plumbers, incompetence is rampant.

That means, if you read a story in the newspaper and you don’t understand exactly what happened, there’s a good chance that neither did the reporter.

You may think I am being a skeptic. You would be correct, and I think you should be too.

At least, that’s my advice.

– George Lee Cunningham

Do you have an opinion on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.

News

April 17, 2024

Minor Character

Sometimes I feel like a minor character in one of those really long James Michener historic novels. I’m one of the guys they check in on a couple of times during the course of the book and one more time when he finally kicks the bucket. In truth, that suits me just fine. I don’t want to be one of the major players – those guys who lie, cheat, sleep around, make a lot of money, kill a lot of people, and then then suffer a tragic death on Christmas Eve. I just want to be me – plugging along, having some fun, loving the same woman for years, and then quietly passing away.

March 25, 2024

Cereal Killer

I have almost given up on cereal. As a younger man, I loved a sugary treat. As an old man, who has to watch his diet, I find myself checking labels on everything. Sugar is the enemy. For instance, Cap’n Crunch – a former favorite of my wife – contains: Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Palm and/or Coconut Oil, Salt, Reduced Iron, Yellow 5, Niacinamide, Yellow 6, BHT, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Pridoxined Hydrochloride, Rioflavin, and Folic Acid. My choice: plain old Shredded Wheat. Ingredients: wheat and BHT (a harmless preservative). Not a taste treat, but at least I’ll live to tell about it

Highway Memorials

Driving across country nowadays, we notice a growing number of roadside displays – flowers, crosses, and ribbons – marking the sites where people apparently died in traffic accidents. I do understand mourning the passing of somebody you love, but I’m not sure I see the point of putting a display at the place along the road where they died. Even sadder is the fact that flowers wilt and highway trash piles up around the displays, making them just another sad reminder of life cut short.

December 5, 2023

Love Motives

I often tell my wife I love and adore her, mainly because I do and also because women like to hear the man in their life actually say the words. But during one conversation I had to confess that some times when I say it – especially when she is irked and giving me the deadly silent treatment – I am also reminding myself of that fact so I don’t start yelling and slamming doors. Is that so wrong?

Being Mortal

I am officially an old man. Sometimes I forget, then I look in the mirror and there it is. The truth is that life has its limits, and that is how it should be. There are new generations coming up, ready to step up and take our place. They are welcome to it. If you have reached old age, you have made some blunders in you life. If you think otherwise, then you are indeed a fool. You can warn the new generations about the mistakes you made, but they are oblivious. This too is as it should be. It’s their world, and it’s on them to screw it up for the generations to follow, just as we did for them.

Good Deeds

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It’s mostly – but not always – true. The problem with good deeds is that most people who do them expect to be appreciated. In actuality, good-deed recipients are more often resentful about it, rather than grateful. Nobody likes being the person who has to rely on the good will of others. So do good deeds for your own sake – because it makes you feel better, not because you want to be feel appreciated.

Recreational Bitching

Did you ever notice that some people – maybe more people than not – like to complain about everything? In the summertime, it’s too hot. In the wintertime it’s too cold. Health care is too expensive. Young people are too rude. Old people move too slowly. There ought to be a law against anything and everything that might make one unhappy. It’s recreational bitching, and we all do it to greater or lesser extent. Maybe once in a while, it might make sense to listen to how we talk and how we think. Most of us are just doing the best that we can.