Specific advice example: “I had 3 bad dev hires, I think I don’t know how to interview, I’m not sure how to fix this, you seem to be good at interviewing”
Generic advice example: “how to open a startup?”
A formalization I like: “How many people would this advice be relevant for?”
Would it be relevant for 10,000 people? It’s generic
Would it be relevant only for me? It’s specific
Give context—what am I asking?
No context: “Can we chat?”
Nice context: “I’m not sure which of these 3 ai-safety bootcamps to take and no idea how to decide”
A formalization I like: “Can the other person plausibly already answer my question (or refer me to someone who can) based just on what I sent?”
No way they can give me useful advice just from that: Not enough context
They can already give me an answer if they know it: Great
They might give me an answer and might have follow up questions: Also great
This formalization prevents me from doing things like describing my CV in length without actually asking something. I also like it more than the rule of thumb of “setting an agenda”, because while I agree agendas are good, it’s not clear what counts as a good agenda.
If I give more than a few lines of context, I often also...
Some rules of thumb I like:
Ask for specific advice, not generic advice
Specific advice example: “I had 3 bad dev hires, I think I don’t know how to interview, I’m not sure how to fix this, you seem to be good at interviewing”
Generic advice example: “how to open a startup?”
A formalization I like: “How many people would this advice be relevant for?”
Would it be relevant for 10,000 people? It’s generic
Would it be relevant only for me? It’s specific
Give context—what am I asking?
No context: “Can we chat?”
Nice context: “I’m not sure which of these 3 ai-safety bootcamps to take and no idea how to decide”
A formalization I like: “Can the other person plausibly already answer my question (or refer me to someone who can) based just on what I sent?”
No way they can give me useful advice just from that: Not enough context
They can already give me an answer if they know it: Great
They might give me an answer and might have follow up questions: Also great
This formalization prevents me from doing things like describing my CV in length without actually asking something. I also like it more than the rule of thumb of “setting an agenda”, because while I agree agendas are good, it’s not clear what counts as a good agenda.
If I give more than a few lines of context, I often also...
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