Advice Doesnt Work

The best advice in the world is no substitute for experience.

We have all done something that someone has told us not to.

"Don't look now"; "Don't touch that"; "Don't smoke pot"

We have all followed someone else's recommendation.

"Try the lobster"; "Go to Las Vegas"

The nature of humans is to experiment and experience - even if someone else has done it before and reported back. We want to know what it would be like for us, from our viewpoint. As a species we can not live vicariously. Why is looking at a view so much better when you are then than through a picture? Why does hearing the sound of a real bird feel so much better than listening to a recording? We have to experience to "be" and the more intense the experience the more real we feel.

This also applies to programming. Someone can tell you how to do something but until you have done it yourself you don't really understand why. That is why HelloWorld is the first thing we do with a new piece of software. Experiencing the familiar in a strange environment. It helps us relate what has gone before to where we are now.

There's a big difference between this page's title and its thesis. Advice is no substitute for experience, and I doubt you'd find many people that would argue it is. But that doesn't mean that AdviceDoesntWork. I'd take advice over no advice any day, even though I'd take advice + experience over them both.

And, I beg to differ with the title period, because advice does work. One just needs to make sure that the source of that advice is trustworthy, and one needs to make sure that the subject involved is necessary of advice. Smoking pot is definitely something that one should listen to the "don't do it" and so is jumping off a bridge to see if you make a big splat at the bottom. Add to this "don't drink alcohol" because you are a not very smart if you test out your genes in this way (what if you have a natural tendency to alcoholism, then all it takes is that first drink to send you on the road of no-return). There are many, many, things worthy of advice, and to test them out for one's self is moronic.

I will also disagree with the title of this page, but I hope with a better tie-in to computer programming. No-one can afford to rely on experience; one needs to skip past making every possible mistake and discovering every insight on his own. One should not wait for advice to come on its own either, go out and look for it. Read heavily; look for advice from a broad range of sources. There is no need to discover everything for oneself. Start to establish a theory for computer programming. This will provide a basis to evaluate advice. One should not, however, reject advice that disagrees with one's theory. The most learning occurs when one tries to reconcile one's theory with divergent advice. Yes, I would argue that advice is not only a substitute for experience, but it is superior to experience. I do not feel it is necessary to be hit by a car before accepting advice to look both ways before crossing the street. I do not feel it is necessary to wait for a (yet another) project to undergo severe functional problems before adopting TestFirstDesign. I do not feel it is necessary to screw up a program before using ReFactoring instead of rewriting code. Take the advice of others and skip over their mistakes.

OnlySayThingsThatCanBeHeard, PleaseUnderstandMe