Why Advice Is Overrated

Ever feel overwhelmed by all the productivity hacks and “success” stories online? Maybe you’ve read about Alex Hormozzi’s unconventional morning routine, or how Tim Ferriss works just 4 hours a week. These stories can be inspiring and we can learn a lot from them, but is this enough for you to actually get results, and achieve your OWN version of success and fulfillment? Let’s explore this right now.

Understanding Knowledge: Second-Hand vs. First-Hand

There are two types of knowledge: second-hand and first-hand.

Second-hand knowledge is what you get from teachers, mentors, consultants, influencers, or any external sources. We refer to it as “advice,” and its validity depends on the credibility and reliability of the authorities that provide you the information.

On the other hand, first-hand knowledge is what you gain from direct observation or personal experience.

The Limitations of Relying Too Heavily on Advice

Relying too heavily on advice and second-hand knowledge has a few limitations:

• Limited by Language: Language may not fully express the subtleties of real-world experience, failing to account for all the variables you might encounter.
• Prevention-oriented Mindset: This mindset focuses on preventing pain and problems. It can lead to an excessive focus on reducing the risks of action, which can reinforce a feedback loop of fear and stagnation.
• Power-Play: Second-hand knowledge can sometimes include subtle manipulation or persuasion tactics that seek to influence your actions.
• Lack of Context and Details: Advice often lacks context and details about actual implementation. What worked in one case might not work perfectly in your own.

Therefore, the true value of advice lies in combining it with real-life action, so you gain first-hand knowledge.

The Scarcity Principle: A Personal Story

The internet offers massive amounts of knowledge, but we have limited time to test everything. When there’s an abundance of information, we may not invest enough in a specific piece of information to fully understand it and see the results of its implementation.

Allow me to share a story:

As a child, I had only five Super Nintendo cartridges. I played those games countless times, replaying them, studying them, trying to unlock all the secrets, and exploring all the features.

The scarcity of games made me value what I had more. It allowed me to derive more joy and fulfillment from the same set of games.

So, how do we deal with the dilemma of having too many options yet not enough time and energy to process everything?

Stay with me, as I’m about to share the secret sauce to solve this situation.

Balancing Second-Hand and First-Hand Knowledge

Nassim Taleb, an investigator and essayist, writer of books like The Black Swan and Antifragile, says:

“If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don’t take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.”

—Nassim Taleb

There is a healthy balance to be nurtured between second-hand vs first-hand knowledge.

Too far in the second-hand knowledge extreme, and you become a shiny object chaser looking for the latest, most attractive, risk-diminishing shortcuts.

Too far in the first-hand knowledge extreme, and you get tunnel vision, hardship, and lack of a map to help you navigate problems.

Even though both extremes are bad, the truth is that without taking action, you will never truly learn or improve your situation, not even by 1%.

The journey of growth is not a race but a marathon. Overly trying to “game” the system through second-hand knowledge shortcuts, without a strategy that is rooted in your own reality, is an excellent way to just keep you stuck where you are.

Crafting Your Own Reality Map

What is the solution for this?

To take action and take risks in an informed and systematic way, to solidify that second-hand knowledge into first-hand knowledge, to gain real understanding of the hidden truths that are revealed by actually taking action and getting real-life experience.

By taking action in a consistent way, you are crafting your own reality map.

This map is the core foundation of your untransferable wisdom.

The wisdom of the masters, of the GOATs, is never based on second-hand knowledge. It’s always based on first-hand knowledge.

Wisdom is what eventually gives you super-natural intuition and super-natural results. Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paco de Lucia, Bruce Lee, Mike Tyson— all the GOATs you can even think of. It’s not necessarily about the tactics and techniques they use, and not even about the amount of knowledge in TB they had located in their brain… but about the highly accurate and relevant experiential map they created for themselves after taking MASSIVE action and putting themselves out there, doing experiments, facing all types of challenges, all types of loss, and deliberately studying their results with curiosity and discernment.

This activity of crafting your own map is the single highest ROI activity when engaging in any kind of mastery process. But, there is a good reason we resist crafting our own maps…

Getting into the unknown, and exploring things on our own can be scary.

Overcoming the Fear of the Unknown

We can diminish that fear with second-hand maps, with help from mentors that went through similar situations, but the truth is that what you will encounter will always be different from what you were told.

Because you are unique, your context is unique, and your present moment is unique.

You will need to deal with the pain of taking action and seeing what happens with your own eyes.

Crafting your own map is a necessity.

And the only way to do it is by taking action and pursuing first-hand knowledge.

The Process of Gaining First-Hand Knowledge

But how does it look to actually look for this knowledge?

First-hand knowledge is obtained by getting in the field, taking action, and gathering reference experience.

Reference experience is the evidence that helps you build your own judgment about what works and doesn’t work for you.

The process looks something like this:

1. Let’s say you want to learn sales. You investigate a little bit, do a course, get second-hand knowledge, and prepare yourself.
2. You set an efforts-based goal. You propose to yourself to do X amount of sales calls and gather all the reference experience you can from this.
3. You take action and actively document the actions you take, the results you get, so you can review it and study it.
   • What went well/wrong.
   • How far did you get in the sales call.
   • If you actually closed the call.
   • If you choked at some objection.
   • Other recurrent problems.
4. After an iteration of this, you would be getting real feedback from reality, that will help you adjust your approach to your context in a more appropriate way.

After gathering enough reference experiences, you will obtain an amount of first-hand, real-life, cross-sensorial, and embodied learning that is not possible to replace by ANY book, course, or mastermind.

This is why advice is overrated.

When inside this paradigm, we don’t talk about victory or failure, we talk only about reference experiences. It’s a reframe that encourages you to take action and see what happens.

Aim, Ready, Fire

Normally, we do an “Aim, Ready, Fire” approach, but this can trap us in endless aiming. We get stuck in the “Aim” part, looking for advice, looking for tricks, shortcuts, tips.

We place too much emphasis on “aiming,” “gathering knowledge,” or “analyzing,” but actual experience is king.

Have you met those who read a lot and possess vast second-hand knowledge, yet lack practical results and wisdom?

People stuck in the “aim, aim, aim” stage are like those planning to go and eat a cake, without actually doing so.

You need to eat the cake.

The Truth About Action

The truth that nobody tells you is that there is no perfect way to create a business, a lifestyle, meaning, pursue passions, travel, manage time, meditate, or whatever.

It’s not about finding the perfect tool or technique, but about taking action and accumulating reference experiences that allow you to create your own map, based on your own experience and understanding.

Don’t get me wrong, second-hand knowledge is still useful… Its primary use should be to create a sense of certainty in chaos and push you forward to get some results.

Also, it can be used to prevent some mistakes, correct some aspects of your approach, gather inspiration, and even open your mind to possibilities you didn’t consider.

But without action, without exercising courage, without facing the unknown… you will not see results. Period.

The good part is that taking action gets easier with time. After you do your first deliberate challenges, you realize that taking conscious risks and moving despite fear won’t kill you.

Personal Growth Through Action

My most transformative experience on this subject was related to dating and socializing. As a kid, I was super shy and struggled with basic social dynamics… I had to learn to speak out loud, show confidence, set boundaries, and express my feelings to girls I liked.

I was too attached to the outcome, and my self-esteem was extremely low.

At some point, I decided to start reading books about sexuality, attraction, socializing, dating, and self-esteem. This was obviously second-hand knowledge, but it opened to me a world I didn’t know even existed. I thought that I was broken, that I was objectively ugly, and that there wasn’t a possibility to actually transform myself.

Gathering courage from these resources and collecting some basic tactics, I began to approach girls I liked (or didn’t like), knowing that those reference experiences would allow me to learn what was actually possible.

Facing Rejection

Facing rejection day in and day out was my first major self-development and transformation experience. I gathered a LOT of reference experience by doing this, and this first-hand knowledge completely transformed my personality.

I literally wasn’t the same person

After that. Former friends wouldn’t recognize me.

But the only way I could expose myself to the pain of taking action and getting rejected, was to view this through the lens of gathering a lot of reference experiences. I was motivated and curious to “see what happens.” My main motivation wasn’t to “get laid” or to be a “Chad,” but to see what was on the other side.

What else was possible? How far can I get with this?

This curious approach was key to make things easier and not make a big deal of all the “negative feedback” I was getting. Being able to separate this feedback from my self-worth was a key part of what actually transformed me.

Embrace Discomfort and Grow

This mindset of viewing your efforts as a way of collecting “reference experiences” reduces your resistance when starting something new. You’ll be more willing to do “stupid things,” because you’ll be motivated to “see” how far you can go, and what happens next, and your brain will automatically gather that information and learn and optimize itself.

Even though most of us take action based on material or emotional motivations, like getting money, being successful, and feeling “happy,” I think that ultimate satisfaction can never come from any outcome.

Ultimate satisfaction can only come through nurturing a devotional relationship with your own growth process. Being able to enjoy it for what it is, with its ups and downs and all its evolving reality, is, I think, one of the cornerstones of going with your true flow.

Your ultimate fulfillment comes from learning, from immersing yourself in this polishing process, and enjoying how the patterns start to clarify themselves.

Surrendering To The Flow

Eventually, you reach a point of mastery where you are not a victim of the circumstances anymore, but you are a wise observer that is able to relate to what is unfolding in a wholesome way.

Any of this wouldn’t be possible without taking a proactive approach in gathering reference experiences, committing to your practice, and making conscious changes in your approach iteration by iteration.

It’s not a matter of surrendering yourself to the flow of doing stuff just for the sake of it. Taking action really reflecting about what you’re doing can keep you stuck for years, so it’s not an intelligent approach either. (And it’s a trap I have fallen into too many times)

Using this concept of reference experience unlocks a psycho-technology that will help you do the craziest things, the things that scare you the most, because you will understand how the “outcome” often doesn’t weigh as much as the process and the learning you gain from it. This mindset shift can help you overcome fear, take risks, and truly grow as a person.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to the Creative Action Podcast on YouTube, and also to follow this podcast on your favorite streaming platform and drop a 5-star review.

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So, final words:

Advice is overrated. Embrace discomfort. Find ways to gather more reference experiences. Expand your map.

Open yourself to the world, take action, and enjoy the growth process.

Ultimately, your fulfillment is a matter of perspective, and not of material or emotional outcome.

Thank you for reading.

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