There has been at least one point in everyone's life where you have asked or been asked for advice on a certain topic or subject. Everyone needs help with something, and it is a genetic trait to ask someone else for advice. However, a lot of people can be dishonest, and in this day and age, that number only goes up. Because of this, sometimes, asking just one person is not enough. Now a days, a person looking for help will most likely confront multiple people for advice to prevent problems with misinformation. The problem, while gigantic in scale now, can be rooted down to three different source problems I call "The Three Probl-Ms of Advice-giving". These three problems are: mistake, misunderstanding, and misdeed.

While mistakes and misunderstanding might have similar definitions, in this context they are two completely different things. First of all, mistakes are when the advice-giver confuses two similar things and gives the wrong advice. A good example of this is when you are talking about a level on a video game you are having trouble with, and your friend, thinking about a similar level, gives you incorrect advice. Now you are going to have a harder time beating the level because your friend told you about a different level. However, this could have all been avoided if you had asked three or four more people for advice on the level. The more similar iterations people give you, the better the chance that the information your getting is true.

Misunderstandings are harder to avoid because these problems will most likely arise from the environment or conditions you are in. an example of this is you are making a phone call, and the connection is pretty terrible. It is hard to understand what uncle Generic_Name is trying to tell you through all the static. There is really no way to fix the connection nor is there a way to prevent all of the static. The best thing to do in a situation like that is to just get more advice from more people. Uncle Generic_Name is only one person any way.

Finally, misdeeds are when the advice-giver is purposely tampering with information to mess with you. An example of this is when you ask Generic_Name how to play the accordion better. Generic_Name, thinking that it would be funny, tells you that you need to aggressively compress and decompress the accordion repeatedly. you accidentally break the accordion, and Now you have a broken accordion, some damaged pride, and still no idea how to play the accordion. However, this could have all been avoided if you had asked all of the accordion players from your music class for advice on playing the accordion. Also you should not have trusted Generic_Name advice in the first place.

Now, I know what you probably saying "But what if everyone you ask gives you incorrect advice?" and to that I say: what are the odds that seven of your close friends do not no what you are talking about? The odds are in your favor; and the on the off chance that the odds are not in you favor? Just expand your focus group, ask new people, be confident. You just need to ask more people. Now go ask those questions, and get some answers.