Psychology

The Best Way To Follow Good Advice And Not Feel Like A Loser

Associated Press, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Google “The Best Way to _________” and you’ll get 340 million hits.

If you want to know the best way to grow slime mold, juggle chainsaws, or catch fireflies, you’ll find a guru. Their advice, they will tell you, is foolproof. No one cops to dishing out anything less than perfection.

But this flawless “best way” tutorial may still be garbage.

Someone may be the most famous, most successful, or most experienced advice-giver on your topic, but what worked for them, may not work for you, even if it’s something as simple as “the best way to slice a turnip.” Stop chasing the Holy Grail of perfect knowledge, because when you seek perfection, you set yourself a trap.

If it doesn’t work as advertised, you’ll blame yourself.

Let me reassure you. You are not a loser. The “best way” was for someone who wasn’t you, in circumstances that weren’t yours. Here’s what I mean: research the “best,” scientifically proven technique to slice a turnip, then give it a try.

But wait! You’re left-handed, 8 ft. tall, and have arthritic hands. You end up massacring the turnips and discover that the “best way” only works if you have red hair and were born in 1953.