Context is Everything

Every action, every thought—just about everything—depends on the time, person, place, situation, weather, and a high number of other factors. And a change in one of them means that the action, thought, or element loses all intended meaning.

Things are highly specific in nature; specific things need specific conditions to give specific results.

Taking them out of context and expecting the same results is insanity.

Generalised solutions usually gives generalised results.

Example 1. Why are you can't give or receive investment advice?

Because the person giving the advice has different risk parameters, different metrics, different safety nets, a different timeline for that particular investment, and information based on that timeline, metrics, and risk parameters,

The person being advised will have a completely different set of the above parameters.

A long-term investor advising a short-term investor will have a disaster at the latter's end.

A person investing in a startup looking at his VC idol will probably end in disaster because VC capital return depends on 1 out of 10 or 20 investments to pay out, which will be big enough to have a net profit out of the 10 investments.

2. Physical training

Person A trains for marathons because all his colleagues are running the same marathon; Person B is training for Olympic or distance running.

Swapping the training regimes without looking at the context is a sure-shot recipe for disaster. At the most basic level, one is training with a result mindset and the other is based on a process approach.

The Anti-Dote: Think for yourself.

A rational answer to almost all questions: It depends.

If you want specific results, you need to tweak the process to your specific needs according to particular environmental factors that apply to you at that time in your own context. It usually takes time and effort to think from the bottom up, making people resort to the most dreaded statement an engineer wants to hear, "I did it that way because that's how it's usually done/everybody does it like this,", as opposed to having a solid rational reason that makes it an efficient and optimal way to do it.

Notes:

1. More examples: Which hiking shoe is right for me? Should I get three-season hiking boots, running shoes, or minimal or barefoot gear?

It depends on how long-term your thinking is with respect to fitness and outdoor activity. If you are someone new, you should probably go for hiking boots, since they will protect your ankles in case of a fall since you don't have the dexterity in your ankles for an ankle-twisting fall. If, on the other hand, you have been trail running for a while and falling down is a routine, you should be wearing trail running shoes with no ankle protection, and having ankle protection will decrease mobility in your foot and weaken your foot in the long run.

It also depends on the context of the weather. If you are in a tropical climate and expect rain, breathable or open shoes will be vital, as they will drain and dry your shoes once they get wet from rain and water crossings. If you wear boots, once the water gets in, it will not get out, and neither will it dry soon. Wearing boots for long periods of time will soak your legs and start causing a temperature drop in the body and a loss of energy and comfort. Reference: Kobe Bryant is a rare player with low-cut basketball shoes for long-term strength and skill building.

2. Naval's Philosophical Wisdom:

"The best advice I can give you is to do what you love. That's it. Discover your purpose. Ignore everybody else. It's very hard to take advice because advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it's worth."

The advice from Naval is to find out what is best for yourself, and any advice from others is just useless because they are not you, and you are very uniquely you.

3. Avoiding predictive mistakes from generalisation:

"Things that have never happened before happen all the time." Scott Sagan, Professor Stanford

Predicting things based on the past has its utility in a stable environment, but as the law of entropy suggests that things don't remain stable for long, they might move towards a more stable level and hence not remain in that state.

Known Bibliography: 1. The Mamba Mentality, Kobe Bryant 2. The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel. 3. Naval Tweets 4. Articles based on the works of Nassim Taleb