I recently had a request to support a new application. It was quite simple and had some very direct needs. I received a technical recommendations document that requested that I help set up two REST endpoints using AWS Lambda to support this application. It seemed straightforward. I was familiar with all of the concepts but I did have to increase my familiarity with the AWS Lambda and API Gateway products.

Since I work in a company with lots of smart people, I thought I’d ask them for advice or to tell me what they learned in the process of using Lambdas. I received volumes of advice from them. Unfortunately, none of it was applicable to my product or my needs.

I could not narrow the conversation to focus on the specific needs of my application. The conversation took on a life of its own as people, in good nature and helpful spirits, shared how they learned to manage massively complicated Lambda architectures. Or they talked about how they used Lambdas to solve other problems such as performing data analysis. I learned a lot about recommendations on how to spin up tech stacks on Lambdas; none of those tech stacks mirrored the one that my team had chosen.

I received a large amount of high value information from well-meaning peers but none of it was usable for our project.

Advice is a Gift

I want to articulate how absolutely appreciative I am of all of the advice that I received. I appreciate that my peers are willing to invest their time into my success. I asked and they provided.

Advice is an investment of someone else in you. Sometimes, it comes by a freewill offering. Perhaps the individual has seen something in you or something that would benefit you and voluntarily presents it to you. Sometimes, it comes in the form of feedback. You might ask for advice and receive it in turn. In any case, it represents a thoughtful consideration of you or your situation and should be appreciated as such.

Even Good Advice Can Be Wrong

You should acknowledge that the advice that you receive comes from a necessarily limited understanding of your specific situation. Even if you were to share everything that you can and fill someone else with knowledge, you should assume that the advice giver has a personal history that grants a different perspective. It’s precisely that perspective that allows them grant advice. Indeed, if the giver has the same perspective as yourself, what could be said that you wouldn’t already know? But you should acknowledge that the source of the advice may not be speaking to your specific need.

Well-intended advice may be really good on a surface level. But you might find that it doesn’t provide any specific benefit to you. It may be something that you already know. For instance, let’s say you wanted to be a better cook. The advice “season your food better” isn’t terribly useful. You might already be working on your seasoning levels and figuring out what you prefer. It’s good advice, but may not be what you need.

Sometimes, advice is too specific and doesn’t have any meaning or potential for growth for you. Going back to the example, you might receive the specific advice to “add more oregano.” That works great if you’re making a sauce for pasta but much less so if you’re making a pound cake.

Use the Advice You Received for Deliberate Growth

Good advice is a great gift as it provides an immediate vision and direction for growth. But not all advice is good. You can appreciate the advice that is well-intentioned without having to accept it. Receive advice graciously but accept it deliberately. Receive all of the gifts that are provided, but only keep the ones that you need.

Even the advice that you discard is useful. It reveals what other people see in you and what you need. In that way, it’s a kind of mirror that allows you to see what others see in you. Or, as my AWS example demonstrates, it allows you to collect information based on other people’s perspectives.

In the case of my technical needs, I saw a lot of cases where peers had stumbled into accidental complexity. A lot of the advice that I received revolved around how to manage that complexity efficiently. I knew that my immediate needs wouldn’t come anywhere close to those needs. But I gathered enough context from those discussions to be confident that the direction I chose was correct for our needs. I also have a plan to manage the product into that kind of complexity as it continues to grow.

I know the title says “ignore,” but don’t throw advice away. Consider it carefully and learn what you can, even if you don’t act on it.