Questionable, yes.

I recently decided to change course and abandon the common authority of advice. The entire process of influence has little to do with the inevitable outcome (and everyone knows it!). People are going to do what they do 95% of the time, regardless of any preceding advice doled on the matter. Unless, that is, the advice coincides with the already entrenched gut feeling of the recipient.

I know, no one wants to hear this. It eliminates many tiresomely delved dilemnas and seeks to debase the foundation of collective intellect and shared experience. But only for a matter of time until that course is set and experienced; because, as human beings we can only see wisdom (good advice) in hindsight. We learn by falling and for some reason we want to keep doing it. Dr. Thompson wrote:

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. But, if we're fools than so is everyone else and does it matter who says what? In the same way that we analyze a person's record collection or library, we deem merit to like-minded thought. So seek the advice you like. It's not so bad. If one has a question, then chances are (omitting human shells and androids), one has an answer. And due to the instilled terms of self-reliance and personal experience, one wishes to follow their own counsel to hence it leads. But prior to all this, one needs a little confirmation by someone else. That's what friends are for.


The Chipman speaks from Kenora, Ontario