# What is the worst advice you ever followed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838 "2008-10-14T07:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/21 "2008-10-14T17:53:01Z")
Don’t take the car in and have that noise checked out - I’ll look at if for you next weekend. The next weekend we were car shopping. StG ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/22 "2008-10-14T18:10:33Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Sure it does. It follows someone else. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/23 "2008-10-14T18:13:04Z")
“Take that semester off from college - follow your heart.” I am now returning to college - over 10 years later. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/24 "2008-10-14T18:22:22Z")
“Tell her how you feel. If you’re this in love with your best friend, surely she feels the same.” She didn’t, and my telling her wrecked one of the best relationships I’ve ever had. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/25 "2008-10-14T18:35:39Z")
“Yes, get a Master’s Degree. A bunch of those old professors will retire, and then you can get a full-time job teaching.” (I wouldn’t call the consequences dire, but they certainly led to a mostly dead end and have been quite disappointing.) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/26 "2008-10-14T18:50:24Z")
Wow. Got a lot of bad advice and just never followed it. Some was catastrophic. The worst advice I actually **followed** was: Marry an Italian girl and preserve your heritage. It was beyond advice and part of my culture, but it was presented as advice, because there were so many ‘advantages’ pitched to me. Meanwhile, I wrote off 99% of the other women that were my age range, some I was attracted to and really connected with. After separation/divorce proceedings, etc (which are amicable and not about money), I sit here thinking about women I wrote off, but who were intellectually stimulating and attracted to me, and vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Solfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/27 "2008-10-14T20:08:41Z")
Don’t worry about the transmission light being on. It just needs a little more fluid. It’s fine to drive. Ka-thunk. ---
**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/28 "2008-10-14T20:46:34Z")
My Dad: “So that dot com that is laying you off is giving you the option to buy the stock options and outright own the stock? You should totally take it! They are laying you off because they are trimming the fat to be more competitive. It’s too bad you were part of that, but I’m sure Microsoft had some rough patches in their early days too”. Me about to piss away thousands of dollars I desperately needed since it was impossible to get a job after that “Gee Dad, maybe you’re right” Three months later, the company completely folded :smack: ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/29 "2008-10-14T21:12:18Z")
My mother: “I just don’t see what use a master’s in linguistics is. What kind of job can you get with something like that? I bet it would actually prevent you from getting a job. You should take your savings and have an adventure instead.” Looking back on it now, all I can think is: What. The. HELL?! ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/30 "2008-10-14T21:32:18Z")
“Just because the previews looked bad doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a chance.” ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/31 "2008-10-14T22:37:05Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Departing San Fran; \*\*“Don’t go through Lake Tahoe on your way to Yosemite \*\*and be sure and stay at the Wawona Hotel.” > > The Wawona had no views, no good trails, nothing to do within driving distance, the golf course was closed and we may have been the only people there under 80 years of age. It blew HUGE chunks and we got there in no time, time that would have been better spent at Tahoe. This was made all the worse the next day when we saw Yosemite and the beautiful accomodations we could have had right there in the park surrounded by everything we’d travelled there for. > > Frustrating in that it was advice given right here, :(, so I’d like to provide a conflicting opinion to CA travellers, namely that the Wawona is good for little other than a dirt nap. There’s no telling how many times I apologised to my wife for that one. Um. Not sure what route you were taking, or I’m reading your post wrong but unless the purpose was to take a meandering drive through the Sierra Foothills, you would never go through Lake Tahoe on the way to Yosemite. They aren’t even close to each other.\* \*again, that is depending on your actual intended route ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/32 "2008-10-14T23:03:07Z")
“You can do anything with a law degree.” Too many problems with that to even start on why that was shitty advice. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/33 "2008-10-14T23:29:54Z")
What to say in an interview: “When you go in, just sell them on the idea that you’ll make them lots of money. They hire you and they’ve got the best man for the job, and you’ll be clobbering your way up the ladder.” -Rat Dad In retrospect, I have no idea what he was thinking. Particularly as someone right out of college, looking for his first job ever, this approach fully and instantaneously alienated everyone I interviewed with. Maybe if I was going for a salesman position, but not otherwise… ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/34 "2008-10-14T23:31:47Z")
“Be yourself, and good friends will find you.” “Work hard and you can achieve your dreams.” ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/35 "2008-10-14T23:41:22Z")
> [@KSO](#): > > “You can do anything with a law degree.” > > Too many problems with that to even start on why that was shitty advice. Heh, heh. The people who say that never finish with “As long as you want to practise law.” (And yeah, I know that lots of people with law degrees end up doing something else, but as far as I can see they would have been better off just doing that without spending three years at law school.) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/36 "2008-10-14T23:42:26Z")
“I know how you can make a bunch of money for college! Join the Army!” :smack: (Nothing against joining the Army per se… just don’t try to use the Army as a means to an end, because the Army will be actively, vigorously, and frequently doing the same to you.) ---
**Author:** ![BrknButterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BrknButterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrknButterfly)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/37 "2008-10-14T23:42:35Z")
“Don’t worry. Anything you do before you’re 18 is written off as a learning experiance anyways…” ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/38 "2008-10-14T23:48:43Z")
“Just be yourself”. That is fine much of the time in casual conversation but it is deadly beyond that for me as some people here can attest. My upbringing, me, and my family are bizarre in some ways that are horrible and some impressive but it doesn’t make for good idle chit-chat on most subjects. Most people don’t know what to know what to make of any of it so I just have to keep my mouth closed. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/39 "2008-10-14T23:56:04Z")
“March into that asshole’s office and tell him he’s really crossed the line this time.” The asshole was my boss’s boss. I got fired. In retrospect, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me, and the asshole eventually got his comeuppance. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838/40 "2008-10-14T23:59:39Z")
“You’re too young to settle down. You should play the field and experience life before you get serious about a girl!” Stephanie, wherever you are, I’m sorry. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-advice-you-ever-followed/467838.md?page=3)