Let Me Give You Some Advice

It is that time of the year again when you'll find many "adults" coming out of the woodwork offering their opinions on what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and where to do it.  Specifically, I mean, where to go for college, and what to do for work.  If you read some of the comments individuals post online, it is clear that many individuals simply don't get it-there is little purpose in giving "advice" when unprompted.  Furthermore, there is a difference between offering "advice" and offering "insight."

Some of the worst comments I see on "college choice" articles go something like this:

1) The economic argument

"I went to school X for Y dollars.  My friend went to Z for A dollars.  We now make $$$ so clearly it made no difference/I was right/they were right."

2) The experience argument

"At school X, there is much more activity/ethnic diversity/economic diversity/research into some topic than at school Z, and this needs to be accounted for."

3) The ranking argument

"Everyone picks schools based on ranking.  That is all wrong and it is all a game."
"You need to choose a well-known, highly-ranked school.  That decision is more stable and secure."

When people offer up these arguments, they forget that the people listening (or pretending to listen) may want to be nothing like them.  I am living my life the way I choose because it works for me, and that includes allowing myself to indulge my hedonistic whims (hedonism being defined as accepting the inner emotions rather than trying to control them).  The things I have done/am doing/will do work for me.  It doesn't mean that they would work for other people, nor am I so presumptuous to think so.

I guess I will give some advice-the things that interest you, pursue them.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and even so you still learned something (and ideally aren't beholden, e.g. through debt, from doing something else).  If it does work, all the better.  But just make sure when you do a cost/benefit analysis, you include all the factors that matter to you.  Simple.

Edit:  Thanks to Yuki for adding this:

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth." -Mary Schmich