Good Advice Usually Sounds Stupid + Announcement!

Big upcoming changes!

Before you start reading.

The Pod (A Mug of Insights podcast) has now moved to a new home OVER HERE. Go show it some love and I’ve a huge announcement to make after this week’s post.

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Bring to mind one of those annoying characters who constantly say “Well, actually…” in a movie. Chances are they have bad teeth, taped glasses, a polo shirt that has outgrown them or all of the above.

It’s fun to laugh at these people on TV, but when we encounter one in real life, we’re usually on the lookout for the nearest fire escape before they finish their first sentence.

The problem isn’t that they are smart. There are plenty of smart people I know who don’t annoy the shit out of everyone. The problem is the attitude behind that “Well, actually…”

Set the scene:

A: “Exercising regularly is great!”

B: “Well, actually… If you look into (cites a bunch of research no one cares about).”

or

A: “I think it’s good to put aside money from month to month.”

B: “Well, actually… According to (cites a bunch of reasons why it’s impossible for people to save money).”

Do you see the problem? The “Well, actually…” guy always tries to claim the upper ground by being negative. This attitude naturally assumes that anything obvious, affirmative or positive must not be true while masquerading cynicism as “I’m just being realistic and rational, bro.”

I’m no stranger to this tendency to say “Well, actually”. In fact, I spent a whole year writing a thesis on cynicism. And what did I discover in my research and in my life? In most cases, the best pieces of advice sound incredibly dumb and naive when you write them down.

For example:

Stop caring what other people think of you! This piece of advice alone took me around five years to understand and even now I’m shaky with it.

Always save some money every month. Sounds stupidly simple, but this advice alone remains the arch-hurdle to financial freedom.

Consistency matters over a long period of time. Duh! But shit, it applies to exercise, building relationships, eating right, self-education, personal finance…

Here’s the trick the human mind plays on us and brainy people are especially vulnerable to this trap. If we can complicate advice from such Simpletons’ Almanac, then one: we feel smarter and two: we can delay the painful inevitability of taking action.

Aye, there’s the rub. According to this German philosopher everyone claimed to have read (Kant), actions are scary because:

“If he (the guy who says “actually”) were to come to practice, this game of a purely speculative reason would vanish like the phantoms of a dream, and he would choose his principles merely according to practical interest.”

(Kant qtd. in Derrida 34, Theory and Practice, Second Session)

In other words, actions can dispel fancy speculations so that we can no longer afford to be snarky and cynical. In fact, if you observe people who have been through a whole lot, their advice is usually so down-to-earth that they’d put a pious protestant to shame.

So catch yourself when you scoff at the advice that sounds below you because if you’ve truly mastered that advice, why would you feel the need to lift yourself above it?

Until next week

Robin

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Now… The Announcement

Don’t get me wrong, I adore Substack. But I have two grievances.

1: Their layouts are ugly

2: Their podcast page is horrendous

Over the past two years, I’ve tried my best to work around these limitations but once in a while, a whisper would always tempt me to do the unimaginable.

“Psst. Why don’t you take this newsletter in-house and make every issue of this newsletter beautiful?”

I’m talking about beautiful cartoons, whimsical columns and quality writing so that every email feels and smells like a special treat you’ll hesitate to archive.

A lot of this vision is still in the works, so on this front, I’d like to get your help: in the comment section down below, write down topics you’d like to read from this newsletter. This will help me plan all the newsletters for 2025. You can check out the work-in-progress by heading over to our new landing page: amugofinsights.com

(Note: all billings for A Mug of Insights on Substack will be cancelled/refunded in mid-Jan and all paying subscribers will be gifted a year of free access to members-only content on the new site)

As for the podcast, I’ve created a new home for all the episodes over here. Give it some love and follow the show whenever you get your pods!

Thank you for all your support! I’ll be back next week with more updates on this grand migration.