When I was younger I read the daily newspaper. I always read the advice columns – Dear Abby, Hints from Heloise and Ann Landers. I enjoyed reading them because they presented solutions for situations that I had never encountered. People wrote in with problems about marriage, child rearing, relationships, cleaning, cooking, work and more. It was all new to me. It was like peeking into someone else’s world to find out how they lived. Sometimes, the answers were something I could even use in my own life.
Now that the world has moved away from newspapers to forums, podcasts, YouTube and TikTok, there are many more people giving advice. Sometimes, especially in niche areas, these are quite helpful for me. When I needed to repair my car, which I’d never done, YouTube was there. When I wanted to learn about investing, JLCollins got me off to a good start.
The advice shows on podcasts though, are another thing entirely. Typically, a listener will ask for advice about some that had such an obvious, common sense answer, that I’m baffled they are even asking.
Maybe it’s me – or more accurately, the podcasts I’m listening to.
Here are my answers for 95% of the questions:
- Grow a pair. You don’t need advice on how to handle a conflict. You need to talk the other person, stand up for yourself, be kind but firm in what you will or won’t accept.
- Stop spending more than you earn. You’re not “bad with money”. You’re spending too much. Stop it.
- You cannot ensure security and avoid failure and pain. Corollary – nobody can predict the future. This goes for jobs, friendships, romantic partners, life choices, etc. Make a decision and give it a shot. When things go wrong, assess and repeat. Try to not repeat the same mistakes that generate similar disappointing results.
- Eat less. Move more. Exercise. You don’t have a food disorder, body image issues or metabolism problems. You eat too much and burn too few calories. If you want to be thinner, it’s going to require effort and sacrifice.
- You are not unique. Whatever your problem is, other people have had it before. If you really want to solve your problem, the answers will be found in history. Instead of asking some podcast host, influencer, reality show star or comedian, do a little bit of reading to discover people who lived through your experience and can walk you through what they did and how things turned out.
I suspect most people requesting advice from podcasts will never take my advice. I don’t blame them. If there was an easier, softer way, I’d want to try that too.
When that doesn’t work and it gets bad enough, the hard way will still be there waiting. And in the meantime, your questions and the answers from the hosts keep us all entertained.