Should people prepare before giving advice?

Advice-giving plays an important role in people’s relationships with others, and it is a strength to be able to offer constructive advice. In some circumstances, however, I think the most helpful thing to do is not to be helpful or to do harm. Sometimes people rush to offer advice based on their own emotional or moral response instead of gaining a more holistic view of the situation and evaluating the pros and cons of the proposed action. Such intuitive and perhaps biased advice may not be useful for the people seeking help.

Is it good to ask for advice from strangers online?

I don’t think it is a good idea to rely on advice received from online strangers, and I think it is better to seek advice from professionals or people who you are familiar with. In fact, there are actually many people who turn to random strangers on the internet to figure out important life choices because of the sense of anonymity, curiosity, and privacy it provides. If talking to a stranger online makes you more comfortable sharing your issues, it is better always to try to talk to more than one person about it and depending on what you are asking, take it with a pinch of salt.

What are the personalities of people whose job is to give advice to others?

Based on my understandings of advisors and consultants, I think these individuals need to be good listeners, natural leaders, and sympathetic and warm people. They need to be able to work with different personalities and to win the trust of clients with professional knowledge and open- mindedness. Their job also requires them to be responsible for the advice they give to others and they know how to respect clients^, boundaries and privacy.

What are the problems if you ask too many people for advice?

Depending on what you are seeking advice for, it is always better to select the people you ask for help instead of telling everyone about it. Since you won’t be able to follow everyone’s advice and when you ask your close friends or colleagues for suggestions, those whose advice you decide to not take may have a worse view of you afterward. They might feel that they wasted their time and energy on something that you already know what to do. While you focus on gathering all the information in order to make the best and safe decision, it is important to be aware of the impressions that you make on and the relationships you establish with the people around you.