Pragmatik » advice http://www.pragmatik.org/blog Being of use to the world since 1979. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:54:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 On seeking advice. http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/2009/11/on-seeking-advice/ http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/2009/11/on-seeking-advice/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:49:42 +0000 Johnny http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/?p=2285 advicetree1009
“…if you seek counsel from a priest, for example you have selected that priest; and at bottom you already knew, more or less, what he would advise. In other words, to choose an adviser is nevertheless to commit oneself by that choice. If you are a Christian, you will say, consult a priest; but there are collaborationists, priests who are resisters and priests who wait for the tide to turn: which will you choose? Had this young man chosen a priest of the resistance, or one of the collaboration, he would have decided beforehand the kind of advice he was to receive. Similarly, in coming to me, he knew what advice I should give him, and I had but one reply to make.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre in the essay “Existentialism is a Humanism”

In other words, if you ask someone for advice, don’t get pissy when you don’t like what you hear. You knew what you were going to hear anyway, and you know it. And if you ask someone for advice on a very regular basis, why would you relish the opportunity to tell your adviser that [s]he is wrong? If it’s funny that [s]he is wrong, why ask her to tell you what to do all the time?  And why would you assume your adviser is wrong because some other person said something different? Maybe the second person is wrong. Maybe they’re both wrong.

I get asked for advice a lot and have since I was 18. I actually like it. I think I’m just a good listener, if I can toot my own horn. I don’t think I possess some superior wisdom, and my station in life proves it.

I think people don’t always believe what they want to. Some people just believe the last thing they heard. Then there’s the person who never ever asks for advice and who unknowingly does stupid things that talking to another person might have fixed or prevented. (I am guilty of this.)

Still, and this is important: there is a lot to be said for doing your own thinking. A lot.  Who can claim to do that?

]]> http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/2009/11/on-seeking-advice/feed/ 2 On delegating. http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/2009/11/on-delegating/ http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/2009/11/on-delegating/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:23:44 +0000 Johnny http://www.pragmatik.org/blog/?p=2271 If you do, if you delegate, if you’re a good leader and you assign responsibility to other people, and if these people are actually especially willing to help you:

Do not send them dozens of emails.  Do not ask questions over and over.  Do not keep changing the details and plans without telling anybody.  Do not, when asked a question about a huge favor someone is doing for you, begin a sentence with, “You need to….”  Seriously.  If you suck at details and know it and then get willing people to take care of it, let them do it.  It’s actually pretty insulting to keep checking.

And it wastes everyone’s time and might even build ill-will. Think of all the time you waste bitching and moaning.  I mean, did I miss something?  Do bitching and moaning suddenly and magically get ‘er done?

And if you change things until the day before, we all might have saved some energy and sanity by waiting until that day to do anything, huh?

There you go.  Management advice from a student of [academic] philosophy.

Also: Invest in coffee for your staff.  Good coffee.  If I ever worked for something who did that, I might still work there!

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