Beware! …The Advice Extremes

We live in an era of extremes.  Mainstream is still there obviously, but wow, the extremes of opinions are becoming more and more polarized.  See 2016 Presidential Election, should you need an example.  Seriously though, it’s scary.  If you Google any particular topic you’d like to receive advice on, you can almost guarantee that you will find valuable, relevant, soundly-researched and scientifically backed advice on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.  Research low-carb diets and you’ll see what I mean.  Holy crap, how can so many brilliant and know-what-they’re-talking-about people be so divided?  Clearly they’re both right….right?  What about secondary education?  Gosh, if Steve Jobs dropped out of college, then I should too, right?

Here’s the problem – some in society like to make a one-size-fits-all approach to all of these scenarios and that’s just not reality.  There IS NO one-size-fits-all equation to extreme viewpoints.  By nature, that would defy “extreme”.  The anti-college trend being a perfect example I’ve seen in recent years, and one I might pick on here.  We’ve got a smorgasbord of hugely successful entrepreneurs that dropped out of high school or college, and suddenly they’re telling their followers that if school is “not for you” then just quit.  Wait, so if I’m not good at something, I should quit?  Awful advice.  Life is full of things that “aren’t for you” and that’s too bad, you’ve got to pull your pants up and deal with it.  College, in particular gets a horribly bad rap.  Maybe it should, it’s expensive as owning a dang home these days, and yes, in some cases, arguably not worth the debt required to get a degree.  BUT, does that mean that every 18 year old should just not go, and hope that they figure out what to do with their life instead?  Sounds wildly inapplicable to me.

Keep in mind, these success stories are outliers, not the norm.  We love the outliers, always have.  Cheering for the underdog.  The crazy success story.  We romanticize about what it was like to be Zuckerberg in his dorm room (Harvard, by the way) concocting up this crazy Facebook “idea”.  Case in point, how about Fassbender or Kutcher playing Steve Jobs to bring the big screen to the remarkable Apple story.  Yes, great outliers, no doubt.  Think about this instead.  1.9 MILLION students will graduate college this May.  Read that again.  1,900,000 students.  Seems crazy to me to think that that many people (PER YEAR mind you), would graduate and do better than sticking through.

College is just an easy target because it’s so openly debatable, but seriously, think about other areas where extreme views are being mandated as fact, and huge, monumental change is made based on this.  It’s dangerous.  Another recent popular trend that has been more extreme than traditional is open floorplan offices.  Data suggests it’s kind of backfiring.   The point is, as an individual, you’ve got to make decisions that evaluate ALL your options, rather than listened to the polarized extremes.  The extreme sides are always going to fight harder for attention, and they usually get just that.  These viewpoints and opinions may be true, but they need to be properly vetted and properly executed.  Haphazard decision-making in an “extreme” sentences guarantees a crash-and-burn.

It’s amazing how many people blindly follow the lead of key influencers without properly thinking through how the scenario applies to themselves.  The “next best thing” may be right for you, your department, or your company, but at least test it out and get some feedback before you jump in.

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