Never Take Advice...

So should we ignore advice from those that whose expertise, education or experiences are superior to our as well, because they "are not doing better than you?

Sometimes, it is warranted. I would listen to a divorced person on some marital things, esp if they are saying why they think they failed. I would however not consider it always good advice! Lol

I would not take nutritn advice from an obviously overweight or out of shape doctor or nutritionist.

I think the idea is to use common sense on advice given! Lol

conversely... (not overcomplicating the statement)... then, take advice from people who are doing worse than you. Is that better?

it's not black or white as your two statements are....

if people are taking their fitness, health and diet advice solely from this forum, thats a problem. i'm sure many do and then they wonder why they are not seeing results... there is very little "absolute truth" to be found in these forums, mostly opinions some of which are supported by results but most of which are supported by what they heard, or read but have not used themselves....

...from someone who's not doing better than you.

Define "better."

Side note in the same vein: especially with things like personal health, many of us have the knowledge, but have not always applied it very well.

Final note: At what point is all of our knowledge considered "valuable?" Do I have to have a certain body fat % for my knowledge to qualify?

It could be a cautionary tale (!)

Sorry, I'm morbidly obese..... ignore me. Carry on.

I think what the OP is saying (and I should know, because I am the OP) is that we should be much more discriminating about who we take advice from, especially on open forums such as this one where contradictory information from every end of the spectrum flies around at the speed of light. If you don't know who is giving you advice, or their results or qualifications, then certainly do more research before openly receiving what they say as absolute truth.

Well, if this is the case then few prople on this forum should take your advice because by your own metric, you're not doing better than many of us. So, in that vein, I'm going to refrain from taking your advice regarding taking advice from those not doing better than me, because the fact is, good advice comes from all kinds of unlikely places. Your advice in this thread is short-sighted, and worth exactly what I paid for it. Nothing.

Rigger

Precisely

I would hope that people get their advice from the people in their lives that they know and trust. Opinions are different however because sometimes you just need the support of others and may wonder what they think and feel about the situation. Advice and opinions (in my opinion) are two different things:)

I think what the OP is saying (and I should know, because I am the OP) is that we should be much more discriminating about who we take advice from, especially on open forums such as this one where contradictory information from every end of the spectrum flies around at the speed of light. If you don't know who is giving you advice, or their results or qualifications, then certainly do more research before openly receiving what they say as absolute truth.

Well, if this is the case then few prople on this forum should take your advice because by your own metric, you're not doing better than many of us. So, in that vein, I'm going to refrain from taking your advice regarding taking advice from those not doing better than me, because the fact is, good advice comes from all kinds of unlikely places. Your advice in this thread is short-sighted, and worth exactly what I paid for it. Nothing.

Rigger

I don't think you know enough about me to make that statement.

I don't think you know enough about the world to determine who is doing "better" than anyone else, or by what measure that determination can be made. I think your conclusions are all the evidence I need to know that I don't want your advice guiding my decisions. Thanks for playing though.

Rigger

really cause my son isn't doing as well as me but if I want advice on welding I go to him...he is a welder

I'm pretty sure he's doing better than you at welding, so you should take his advice as welding.

There's an important difference between taking advice from people who are where you want to be versus taking advice from people who are farther down the same path as you.

I wouldn't take fitness or diet advice from an NFL linebacker. Ray Lewis has been incredibly fit his entire life. He has always eaten like a horse and always had muscles and always been a general badass. His advice is more or less useless to me. He hasn't been on my path.

I will take advice from someone who has gone from being a fat sedentary 25 year old and turned themselves into a lean 32 year old machine. I will take advice from someone who has battled the same injuries I have and come out better than I am right now.

...from someone who's not doing better than you.

That imo is wrong. I could give advise based on my specific education, life experience, nutritional experience, 15 years of weight lifting, common sense etc to someone who is 30 years younger than I ( because it's based on science and basic principles of weight loss for example ) and maybe therefore has better or faster success than I do being in my mid 60's.
If the advise given to me makes sense ( again based on science, common sense and also logic ) I will always at least check it out, even if the person is less successful than I, because success has many components not just " doing better " in the pounds lost.
There are many out there who should refrain from giving advise, but I would never categorically discount someone because they have " 0" on their ticker.

A line from Rippetoe's Starting Strength sticks out. He essentially says that the best trainers are mediocre athletes who tried like hell to get better. Naturally gifted athletes make terrible trainers because they don't understand the struggle and learning process.

That's a good point. To paraphrase the old saying, being born on third base doesn't mean you're an expert on hitting a triple.

Strongly disagree.

Circumstances apply.

hmmm....but so many people are giving advice on this forum...