Help Wanted: America’s love affair with amateur advice
<i>Q: What qualifies this group for the position of beacon to the masses?<p>A: Not a blessed thing.</i><p>If you pay a psychiatrist, you have to worry that they have a conflict of interest. If you really get well, you won&#x27;t need them anymore. They have an inherent motive to help you only enough to take credit for things going better, not enough to set you free from needing their services.<p>If you turn to family, coworkers, or friends, the odds are very high that you will face similar conflicts of interest. Family inheritance. Family allies (the &quot;favorite&quot; child&#x2F;sibling&#x2F;cousin). Etc.<p>It&#x27;s really hard to find someone to talk to whose personal biases are less problematic than those entrenched ties. A stranger or advice columnist may not give good advice, but they are somewhat less likely to give advice designed to encourage you to cut your own throat for their personal benefit.<p>People like me who like actually being useful and hate that kind of crap are sometimes drawn to giving advice for free in online forums. I read this because the title made me think it would be about that trend. There are endless places on the internet where you can anonymously ask for advice without admitting to your boss that you don&#x27;t actually know how to do X or admitting to your spouse that you are thinking of leaving, etc. I think a similar article about that in specific would likely be far more interesting.