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Home > ~ Tangents > Advice vs. Opinion

Advice vs. Opinion

August 20, 2010 By Mark 7 Comments

My brother tells a funny story about someone coming to him for help. He politely listened to the person explain their situation, which went on forever, then gave his take. At which point the person turned on him like a lunatic and screeched, “I asked for your opinion, not your advice!”

In the aftermath of that anecdote I broke the concepts down to discern the difference between the two, and hopefully protect myself from a similar experience. Here’s the entire difference between opinion and advice:

  • Opinion = “This is what I think.”
  • Advice = “This is what I think you should do.”

That’s it. That’s the whole difference between telling someone your opinion and having the effrontery to give unsolicited advice.

I mention this because a peer had a similar run-in with someone in a professional context. While there’s no way to protect yourself from crazies, you can cut down on the likelihood that someone will take offense by framing everything from your own point of view:

  • If I was in your shoes…
  • If that happened to me…
  • I know how I’d feel if…
  • That happened to me once, and…
  • In my own experience…

That sort of thing. Whatever observations you want to make in reply, make them about yourself. There’s literally no difference in what you’re saying, but for some people it seems to make a big difference.

And in a business context, that could make a difference to you.

— Mark Barrett

Filed Under: ~ Tangents, Publishing Tagged With: difference

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Comments

  1. Stéphane Bura says

    August 21, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    Good advi- Hey!

    Reply
  2. Trevor says

    October 2, 2015 at 12:44 pm

    For me the difference is even more simplistic. Advice is asked for, opinions are proffered.

    Reply
    • Ditchwalk says

      October 2, 2015 at 3:49 pm

      Nice.

      Reply
  3. Athena says

    June 22, 2016 at 11:43 am

    So what is the difference between instruction and advice…

    Reply
    • Ditchwalk says

      June 22, 2016 at 8:12 pm

      That’s a good question, Athena.

      I think the easiest answer — in terms of avoiding semantic entanglements — is to think of advice as containing some element of judgment, while instruction would be more factual. Still there’s certainly a problem-solving component to both, and even a teaching component assuming your advice has merit.

      There’s also the difference between mental pursuits and physical tasks, and we might liken advice more to the former, and teaching more to the latter, but it’s not absolute. One can be taught to think more clearly, and one can also be advised to avoid, say, eating a big meal before taking a ride on a roller coaster.

      Or maybe the difference is between what to do (advice) versus how to do something (instruction).

      Reply
  4. Fred 3rd says

    July 6, 2016 at 11:41 pm

    My advice is life experience of mistakes. Opinions are what I think is the true but you really don’t know.

    Reply

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Trackbacks

  1. WIG&TSSIP: The New Criticism | Ditchwalk says:
    February 7, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    […] best-practices than I am in how any audience comes to terms with my stories. As a matter of opinion I think you should give some thought to approaching authorship that same way. I’m not naive […]

    Reply

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