The Friday Fillip: Advice

As the great Oscar once wrote, “I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.” So here I am, passing upon advice, admittedly not quite the same thing. And let me say at the outset that since advice is something lawyers give, or, rather, sell, I find it good.

Of course, lawyers aren’t the only ones charging for advice (which, curiously, is rooted in the Latin for “seeing” — as in “the way in which a matter is looked at.” [OED]). Lucy famously charged a nickel and styled it as ‘help’. Increasingly, however, some people aren’t even charging peanuts but are giving it away for free. And despite the saw that “Free advice is worth what you pay for it,” it looks like other people are taking it.

We might be tempted to think that this sort of gift economy of wisdom is an artefact of the internet, but a moment’s reflection reminds us that the practice has been going on forever. Proverbs make that case, I think. In that body of lore, some of which has been elevated to the status of holy writ, you’ll find advice both supporting and inveighing against every conceivable action. Here, for example, you’ll find a list of 521 of these nuggets in English. And, if you don’t find there what you need to make you feel better about a decision, you can roam around in the hundreds upon hundreds of proverbs from Kenya, Turkey, China, Ireland, etc. etc. (e.g. Turkey: “A nail will come out, but its hole remains.” I used to know a carpenter from Turkey whose name was Nail Engin. But I digress…) And, finally, if you’re determined to stay undecided, as we so often are, here’s a list of 34 contradictory proverbs to help you remain.

Much more fun, however — and a good deal more up-to-date — is this sequence of photographs that tell the story of how in 2009 Danish photographer Simon Høgsberg set up shop on Frederiksborggade in Copenhagen and offered free advice and coffee. (I enjoy his work and did a fillip just over a year ago on another of his projects.) Fifty people took him up on the offer, showing that the chance to air a matter with a perfect stranger might be worth more than general advice about free advice would have it.

Simon Høgsberg

Completely by the way: notice some lovely examples of mirroring in the postures of Høgsberg and the advisee.