I wrote a short story the other day in the form of an oriental fable about the unreliability of advice from gurus. One of the parables it contains is about two people each given the same advice - it works for one of them, while the other - spoiler - is killed by it (or rather by their foolishness in trusting blindly in it).

But maybe it's more complex than that. Let's face it, it's always more complex than that.

Maybe every piece of advice is actually the secret to fulfilment, but only for one particular person at one particular time. Like Cinderella's glass slipper, or finding the right book in an infinite Borgesian library.

And the only way of knowing if a particular recommendation is the one for you is to try it - and probably fail, perhaps even die in the attempt.

Unless you have the insight to instinctively select the 'cup of a carpenter' when you come across it and discard the attractively but deceptively bejewelled remainder.

Hmmm. That doesn't really help does it?

6 Guaranteed Hacks to Achieving Advice Selection Instinct and Not Dying Horribly!