I made this video as a contribution to Brooklyn Public Library Night of Ideas on 1/28/21 (www.nightofphilosophyandideas...), the theme was "advice for America."
So much gold in 7 min 43. I watched this twice in a row, and the second time around I laughed out loud at the first line. My advice is to play this clip twice back to back so you can experience how the opening works as a killer punchline.
Fantastic advice! Haha. Sometimes pain and leaving someone to struggle without giving them all YOUR answers is help and solving all of the pain and struggle for another is hindering them. Really refreshing not to be TOLD what to think but it being SUGGESTED how I might think.
Thank goodness you didn't advise us to consider these questions :) This is well worth discussing. Depending on individual disposition, I do think there are social dynamics and internal mental states (like anxiety) that make both giving and receiving advice potentially more costly than a low friction form of help, e.g. please hold that door open while I carry this big box through it. Lots to think about! (No) Thank you !
I would think that maybe in my case that the "right" thing to do is so obvious & yet I can source out advice & follow or not follow with even sometimes doing the same thing over & over like sitting at a slot machine telling myself... hell ya, it's gonna happen this time... advice? probably well intentioned, but within their own orbit, there's a lot of lens/nature/nurture coming from their own backgrounds... may/may not apply or resonate in a specific situation
Good stuff here and good questions. I think advice is given so much because we are starved for community, we want to share in the experience of it. Why are we starving for community? That's a big question.
Too many people look to public personalities in order to feel like they have guidance in their lives, whenever instead they should be taught to think critically and learn how to look within for answers. Yeah, it's maybe better to present people with avenues of thought which they can explore, by which they can question themselves and the world around them with substance, rather than directly stating something that may be taken as the dogmatic "answer" they're looking for.
Isn't there a sense in which the doing of philosophy is a form of, or quite similar to, giving advice? Perhaps it doesn't recommend a specific course of action (although sometimes it might) and it might not describe it's recommendations as coming out of personal, lived experience (although wisdom is often seen in this way) but rather as the dictates of reason or the result of collective deliberation. Nonetheless, there seems to be a structural similarity in which one source of information or knowledge (a person or a book) guides someone who is lacking that thing or is torn between conflicting choices (or arguments). In other words, in giving us the reasoning that has you concerned about whether giving advice is good and useful, aren't you also giving us advice about giving advice?
So much gold in 7 min 43.
I watched this twice in a row, and the second time around I laughed out loud at the first line.
My advice is to play this clip twice back to back so you can experience how the opening works as a killer punchline.
Fantastic advice! Haha. Sometimes pain and leaving someone to struggle without giving them all YOUR answers is help and solving all of the pain and struggle for another is hindering them. Really refreshing not to be TOLD what to think but it being SUGGESTED how I might think.
You should definitely write about this more. You really broadened my horizons. Thank you!
(I think I just gave you advice. Sorry!)
Agnes please make more videos, I love hearing your thoughts 💯
Thank goodness you didn't advise us to consider these questions :)
This is well worth discussing. Depending on individual disposition, I do think there are social dynamics and internal mental states (like anxiety) that make both giving and receiving advice potentially more costly than a low friction form of help, e.g. please hold that door open while I carry this big box through it.
Lots to think about!
(No) Thank you !
Thanks so much.
You're a National Treasure, Agnes. Please never get too tired or busy for your people. Unless that's what you need. Or what you want. We will wait
Do you know the German word for advice? It's Ratschlag, which includes the word for punching (schlagen). So it is something we punch onto others
What are your thoughts on minimalism?
I am not sure that we are all in this together. Is what I have found to be good for me to be good for anyone else? I am sure that is not true.
If I was Elon Musk rich, I would hire Agnes to be on a team of philosophers...
Are you advising us to be suspicious of advice?
There may be a big social media company, (or several) that knows which books were recently read and by whom.
I would think that maybe in my case that the "right" thing to do is so obvious & yet I can source out advice & follow or not follow with even sometimes doing the same thing over & over like sitting at a slot machine telling myself... hell ya, it's gonna happen this time... advice? probably well intentioned, but within their own orbit, there's a lot of lens/nature/nurture coming from their own backgrounds... may/may not apply or resonate in a specific situation
Good stuff here and good questions. I think advice is given so much because we are starved for community, we want to share in the experience of it. Why are we starving for community? That's a big question.
Too many people look to public personalities in order to feel like they have guidance in their lives, whenever instead they should be taught to think critically and learn how to look within for answers.
Yeah, it's maybe better to present people with avenues of thought which they can explore, by which they can question themselves and the world around them with substance, rather than directly stating something that may be taken as the dogmatic "answer" they're looking for.
A non-influencer :)
you get me
Isn't there a sense in which the doing of philosophy is a form of, or quite similar to, giving advice? Perhaps it doesn't recommend a specific course of action (although sometimes it might) and it might not describe it's recommendations as coming out of personal, lived experience (although wisdom is often seen in this way) but rather as the dictates of reason or the result of collective deliberation. Nonetheless, there seems to be a structural similarity in which one source of information or knowledge (a person or a book) guides someone who is lacking that thing or is torn between conflicting choices (or arguments). In other words, in giving us the reasoning that has you concerned about whether giving advice is good and useful, aren't you also giving us advice about giving advice?