– or can you? Â Apparently 93% of all advice is ignored, and here’s why… * Â Yesterday’s great portmanteau word was ‘askhole’ – someone who keeps asking your advice on stuff and then completely ignoring what you said. Â Ironically it was my daughter who shared this on Facebook, and she is one of the biggest – no, I can’t call her that, but she does have tendencies… as does Mark. Â But what’s even worse than people ignoring your advice is people arguing with it.
‘What do you think I should do?’ they say, turning to you with a face so appealing that you can’t resist offering it something.
‘Well,’ you say, ‘if I were you I would do this.’
The appealing expression morphs into incredulity.  ‘Really?’ they say.  ‘You would do that?‘
‘Yes.’
‘But why?’
And so it begins: the argument you didn’t want to have because, basically you’re just giving an opinion because they asked for one!  They can work the rest out on their own.  I have to say daughter is one of the biggest offenders here.  Mark is not so bad because basically he hardly ever asks for advice – although, let’s face it, if saying ‘everything’s going down the tubes and I don’t know what to DOOOOOOO!’ isn’t asking for advice, I don’t know what is.  So I give him my counsel – and then he starts to argue.  It’s really annoying.
Still, there is one thing even more annoying than that, and it is – unsolicited advice. Â You know, when someone comes up to you and offers you advice you haven’t asked for. Â It’s basically like saying, ‘Hey! Â Here’s a problem you didn’t know you had – and guess what? Â I’ve got the solution too. Â Big day for you, huh?’
I have been totally freaked out by people doing this in the past: it makes you wonder what other problems people think I have, that they’re not telling me about, and what other bits of advice they might be withholding from me.
So what’s the most useless piece of advice you’ve ever received? Â I’d really like to know.
Yesterday I began to resurrect ‘Knots’, a novel I have previously written at least three times, one of them for Nanowrimo. Â And then I went to the dentist with Holly – something she actually DID take my advice on.
Kirk out
*and 100% of that statistic was made up
Sarada Gray 
Most useless piece of advice: ‘behave yourself’.
Spock out
LOL
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I think often people aren’t really asking for actual advice. What they’re really seeking is sympathy and also for someone to act as a sounding board.
Best piece of advice…This
See if you have a dial in your mind that says “everything” at one extreme and “nothing” at the other. It’s impossible for anyone to do everything or nothing. Maybe label it “too much” and “not enough” instead, and try for the midpoint. Replace any on/off switches in your mind with slide bars or dimmers!
Especially the bit that says… Replace any on/off switches in your mind with slide bars or dimmers!
Wow! That’s good – I like that. It’d be a good one for Mark
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Which is from Sandradodd.com the unschooling part of the site. It’s been a useful piece of advice in all kinds of areas of my life.
The most useless piece of advice “just ignore them” which was advice about being bullied. It’s flipping hard to ignore someone who’s hitting you on the head.