Lesson 1. Going through several forums and seeing how people react, putting on a persona that makes them reveal a bit more about themselves made me realize that when people think that a person's post has potential in ruining the integrity of that forum, usually, it's just being a bit too extremist. One person's post out of 100s of thousands, if not millions of posts suddenly has this chance of ruining the impression given from a forum? It's like people don't realize that they could just ignore that person's opinion on something, and everything will be fine. Unless that person is actually going out and trying to ruin the forum by finding any thread he/she to make this impression of degrading a forum and is being militant about it, there's little chance that same person's voice is going to make someone else lurking go,
"Oh, I get what he's trying to say, I'll believe his opinion and suddenly disregard my ability to have any of my own opinions! Because after all, I suddenly don't know that forums are mostly there for solutions, and instead of trying to find other people's views and their suggestions, I'll just focus on this singular person's opinion and magnify that to the point where it suddenly becomes the consensus of everyone else's! Because that's what forums are for right? Just picking one person, and not the views of many."
If all forums were like that, no one would get anywhere, obviously one person's opinion shouldn't be the only source of impression of a forum. If people think their voice is going to more viral than Rebecca's "Friday," and hit a nerve for all people, then wow, just wow. Get over yourself and just find other people's opinions. That's what forums are FOR, why can't people have this simple fact engrained in their minds?
Lesson 2. When giving advice to people, I learned something while giving advice to another person I really liked based on his character of being really open-minded. Anyone with experience over a certain matter that relates to psychological and social questions is obviously going to be preferred than a person who's younger. People want assurance that this person's experience will give them a reasonable answer they can follow, and anyone that hasn't experienced it, and still gives reasonable advice suddenly isn't any better than the person with experience.
So really, when giving advice for social things (like advice on Cars, because if you don't know your stuff, obviously it's bad advice, but this is an exception), it's all about asking the right questions. Usually people with experience are able to come up with the right questions and suggestions, but people never pay attention to observation. They think it's something useless, and even when you don't have any experience with something like a relationship breakup, etc., if you observe people good enough, if you see how they behave and interact and react to certain people, you can formulate questions just as good as a person with experience.
The advice itself isn't always going to be perfect, but you as a person giving advice are essentially a medium for that other person asking the advice to. To put it in simple terms, they have someone to talk to, someone where they can branch out their problems that they want to talk about and hopefully come to a practical method of solving it. You as the individual are not essentially the one that "knows every single thing in the whole universe," but if you just pay attention to what the person is saying, and you can have some competency in making models of realities of how it would feel like, you collect those feelings from yourself, you empathize with that person's feelings as well, everything comes full circle, and it's simply a matter of trial and error.
You don't have to be proficient in every single aspect of a topic of Relationship to be a "relationship guru" or whatever bullshit wisdom label people like to give others who actually helped them out. And there is an age range to where that advice is credible, but that is completely subjective. If a 13 year old is giving advice on how to bang chicks, then surely no one older than him is going to take his advice seriously.
However, someone who's in their 18+, even going down to 17+ should be able to have competence in critical thinking. So if you're only looking for people that are older and assume they'll give great advice, then do it! But if you don't really see much credibility in someone younger, and then reject their suggestion to let you brainstorm your problems, you're honestly just making things worse in the long run. People are willing to sacrifice their ability to think things out and sublimate that responsibility to someone who seems credible; someone who asks the right questions.
So the next time you think a person doesn't know shit about how it feels to break up with someone, think about the power of observation. It sure may not be perfect as having experience and having the direct answers there, but if the questions that person giving advice to you is reasonable for you, what's the point in going on a scavenger hunt for information when you're essentially transferring your ability to speculate?
If you end up with the same conclusion or suggestion, don't you think that's hinting that anyone with decent critical thinking and opens themselves to many scenarios to solve it is empathizing with you? Does anyone not get that? Or is it just me?
People want that closure, so they'll be willing to subconsciously (or unconsciously for you Old Age people) offer part of their rationale to talk things out with you. That's most of the reason why people never solve their problems or find ways to reduce it....because they don't have anyone to talk things out with and ask them questions. It's something progressive, it's never perfect, but the attempt to actually find what's wrong bit by bit is FAR better than living in denial and never trying to be suggestive to other people's advice that can actually HELP you.
Of course, there are many exceptions (such as knowing what it's like to have children), but for things related to how people behave, you can still observe how other people react and interact, because obviously, the more people you observe, the more you store scenarios in your mind that can offer the right questions to anyone that wants advice, which can just be another term for talking things out. No one's perfect, but it doesn't mean you can't ask questions, always ask questions, that's going to give more things to think about that can actually help!
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But...
if you're in an ultimatum for advice, go to really, really, old people. Get as much insight from them, because chances are, they never tell because they assume younger people won't ask. Whether or not you parrot that advice to someone else? Maybe there's a chance for that, but if you can apply what you learned from them and make a model that fits to your perception, then what's so wrong with using advice of others? If you're a mere copycat and don't give your own opinion, that's one thing, but it doesn't mean a person has to experience certain things themselves when they can go to people who mostly likely learned from it. Even so, always be willing to find more answers in many age ranges because even an older person can be emotionally attached to an idea and never allow themselves to learn too.
So the next time you start becoming insecure that some teenage boy or young adult thinks they know it all, well, if you knew a suggestive to help someone out, then why not fucking get over yourself and be an "adult" and show them something you think is better? Are you going to let someone younger make you feel inferior? Just because you're older doesn't mean your the epitome or the perfection of advice. If you're not willing to observe as well, you're just as equal in mentality with someone younger.
Lesson #3:
If you're that person that likes being around people, satisfying others because it makes you feel better as a person because you just love making people feel good, just realize there's a limit. If the people you're trying to impress makes you waste many resources (financially) and you're continuing that behavior of getting yourself in debt only to get little reward from them (but you see it as something good no matter the value), then you just have to stop and think about what you're doing.
You as a person before most likely was very critical of other people's opinions, and you could never understand what it would feel like to be in their situation. Whether it's being a tough guy, having a girlfriend, or something like that, subconsciously, you will become a "Yes" man to some extent to learn things from people. You sedate the ego temporarily to be suggestive to what people think, and when you're satisfying these people, you tend to forget the ego's role in making practical judgement of your actions.
Imagine your foundations, your whole being and schemata as a Google Search Engine. When you want to find information on something, you type it in the search bar, and Google Spiders, that are still part of you (They equal you being the "Yes Man") are out scavenging for answers. These bits of yourself that you do subconsciously without even realizing it makes you suggestive, because the subconscious obviously is a non-emotional part that wants to make your life better. That is why you disregard the ego temporarily, that critical part of yourself, in order to learn more about people.
However, when people make themselves into these "google spider bots" or "Yes Man" that are suggestive towards learning, they are not able to come back to the search engine source; their foundation, their ideologies, etc. They are stuck in a limbo of being in the "Yes Man" phase and experience conflicts financially, mentally, and even physically.
So when you're sitting there speculating your purpose in life, or purpose in what you, that is when you're back to your ego, and THAT is when you START USING IT FOR WHAT IT's THERE FOR, TO FUCKING HELP YOU. USE THAT DAMN OPPORTUNITY and start analyzing what you learned in the "Yes Man" Phase, and if it needs more work, try once more, keep finding answers, go back to the ego, or the source of your rationale, and LEARN. So if you're feeling stoic and not wanting to talk to others for a bit and be by yourself, use that time to find purpose for yourself, and then go back to what you wanted to do: satisfying people and satisfying yourself, only this time, you have added awareness to how you work.
You are a learner, people you go to indirectly exposes you to learn something about yourself. People we go to that we like are parts of ourselves that we like, and we can learn more when people share the same ideas of you. It's about coming back to rationale, and not being stuck in limbo like a rogue Google Spider bot would do. Send the information you learned when you were suggestive and were willing to satisfy people BACK to your ability to question and TEACH.
If more people were able to know about this, even if they had problems, they'll know how to get over it. Of course, not all problems can be fixed, but learning to reduce or lessen the chance of having them again is far better than being a defeatist.
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