Advice Giving

I often seek advice from people and try to have my sample set be as diverse as possible. It gives me a chance to hear all sides (hopefully) of the story before making any decision. This has usually worked out well for me and I learn more about the people who are offering their two cents on the problem at hand. Read this interesting post on the economics of advice at Marginal Revolution and liked this line in particular : The advice-giving mode mobilizes insights which otherwise remain dormant, perhaps for fear of falsification or ridicule or of actually influencing people.  

That would explain why I have heard the most profound thoughts from those I least expected to hear them from and have been proportionately disappointed by the facile arguments of those I thought could do much better than that. Indeed the best advice can come from the most unexpected quarters. Back in India, our illiterate domestic help of many years, had more wisdom to offer than a lot of highly educated people around the family. She kept to herself and spoke only when spoken to but she had no rival when it came to restating a problem in the simplest terms and coming up with the most common-sense solution to it.