Comments on: The trouble with giving advice http://rc3.org/2009/03/02/the-trouble-with-giving-advice/ Rafe Colburn on software development (and other topics) Mon, 21 May 2012 23:52:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: tok http://rc3.org/2009/03/02/the-trouble-with-giving-advice/comment-page-1/#comment-4830 tok Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:43:12 +0000 http://rc3.org/?p=9214#comment-4830 <p>It's hard to have an absolute rule about advice. There are times when you do generally have a mastery of a system, and your advice is valid, but there are other times/spheres in which mastery is simply not possible, and your advice is simply unlikely to compensate for all the factors that you're incapable of knowing. In general, this is true of economics. In stable times, the way in which your knowledge correlates with the "general consensus" may make you appear to be a savant, but in times of flux, one would be very lucky to have one's basic assumptions about an inhumanely complex system actually match the reality of such a system.</p> <p>One must know their limits. In economics and finance, at least amongst the most vocal in those fields, this is a rare trait. Of course this is so for a reason. Risk and reward (for the advisors) are quite asymmetrical.</p> It’s hard to have an absolute rule about advice. There are times when you do generally have a mastery of a system, and your advice is valid, but there are other times/spheres in which mastery is simply not possible, and your advice is simply unlikely to compensate for all the factors that you’re incapable of knowing. In general, this is true of economics. In stable times, the way in which your knowledge correlates with the “general consensus” may make you appear to be a savant, but in times of flux, one would be very lucky to have one’s basic assumptions about an inhumanely complex system actually match the reality of such a system.

One must know their limits. In economics and finance, at least amongst the most vocal in those fields, this is a rare trait. Of course this is so for a reason. Risk and reward (for the advisors) are quite asymmetrical.

]]> By: Joe K http://rc3.org/2009/03/02/the-trouble-with-giving-advice/comment-page-1/#comment-4826 Joe K Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:04:20 +0000 http://rc3.org/?p=9214#comment-4826 <p>"...advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill."</p> “…advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”

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