We all receive advice from time to time, from friends and family to colleagues and strangers. But not all advice is created equal. Some advice can be helpful and insightful, while other advice can be downright terrible.
A user asked the forum, “What is the worst advice you have received?”
GET A TAN
“Take your shirt off. Get some sun on your back. It’s good for you.”
Worst sunburn of my life. 2nd-degree burns. Skin peeled for weeks. I was a kid.”
MISSING ADDICTION
“That I was more fun and enjoyable to be around when I was active in my addiction.”
CHEATING
“Everybody cheats; how do you think people stay together for sixty years?” – my father, in response to my being upset about being cheated on for the umpteenth time.”
BE LOYAL TO YOUR COMPANY
“Be loyal to your company, and you will be rewarded.
It’s 2023, and with all the layoffs happening, loyalty to your employer is not a thing anymore.”
HALLUCINOGENS
“To take hallucinogens to fix my Schizophrenia. Woof, man. Woof.”
EAT BREAD
“I’m type 1. My obese dietician told me that I should eat more bread to “give my insulin pump something to do” when I went low-carb.”
PEOPLE IN THE REAL WORLD
“That people in the ‘real world’ will be way harder on me than those in academia. Yeah, I’ve been laughing all the way to the bank for a few decades over that one.”
TAKING PARENTS’ ADVICE SERIOUSLY
“My parents insisted that I walk to every business within a three-mile radius (I didn’t yet have a car) and insisted on speaking to a manager about an application form.
They told me that if the manager didn’t hand it to me, then I shouldn’t take it because, for some reason, my pushing and insisting and making everyone uncomfortable would make the manager see my initiative.
I didn’t do it, and they told me I’d never find a job, and nobody would hire me since I was just another online application, and they wouldn’t notice me. A week later, I got an interview and got the job.
At that job, I had people do the exact thing my parents told me to do, and when we tried telling them we didn’t have physical applications, only online, they would just keep pushing on talking to a manager that either wasn’t there or really busy. It never went down well.”
WORK HARDER
“The harder you work, the farther you will go. The only thing hard work got me was more work.”
GOD WILL TAKE CARE
“God will take care of it; 99.99999% of the time, you have to take action.”
HURT THEM BACK
“When I was 16, my boyfriend had done something that hurt my feelings (can’t really remember what it was), and I was telling my mom how it made me sad, and she looked at me and said, “When they hurt your feelings, you need to hurt them right back and worse.”
My parents had (and still have) a horrible marriage, and it was at that moment that I knew I never wanted to be like either of them.”
DON’T THINK
“A person saying “just don’t think about it” to an overthinker. Gee, thanks, lemme just turn off my brain then.”
NOT TELLING ABOUT AUTISM
“Not me, but my parents were told never to tell me about my diagnosis of autism because I’ll develop learned helplessness. So many years struggling not knowing what was wrong with me, wondering why I was so different.”
PUSH YOURSELF HARDER
“Recently a doctor told me that I have to “push myself.” I’m currently struggling with burnout and fatigue because I’ve done nothing but push myself for the last ten years or so.”
GET A DEGREE
“‘Get a degree’- didn’t help in my career, and I am still paying off the loan!”
YOUR PROBLEM IS YOUR ATTITUDE
“Your problem is your attitude. If you have a good attitude, you can succeed.” from my mother. Her life has always been bad, so I guess that’s how she copes.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.