Lucy Kellaway on advice

In the process of sounding like Robin Hanson, she refers to:

…something important about advice in general. From the issuer’s point of view, admonitions are not meant to be followed at all. In fact, they are positioning statements that tell the world about the values the issuer would like it to think they hold.

From the recipient’s perspective there is no question of following the advice anyway. As John Steinbeck pointed out “Nobody wants advice – only corroboration.”

From the FT there is more here which you should read.