There are so many podcasts where "successful" people (within a narrow definition of success) give advice.

The issue there, is that for every "successful" person, there are thousads who did the exact same things and didn't make it. Arguably a better thing would be to interview the ones who failed, and learn lessons from them.

Secondly, the person themselves can be selective in what they share, they may talk about the risks they took to get where they are, but not about the backstop of a wealthy family to fall back on if it all goes wrong (for example).

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keiferski a day ago | parent | next [-]

This is a common sentiment but I don’t actually know if it’s true. I feel like a lot of people claim they did exactly the same things, but when you get down to the details, it turns out they didn’t really work as much, didn’t spend time meeting the right people, etc.

Saying “it’s all just luck” is just a defensive mechanism, in a lot of ways.

	▲	pixl97 a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Here's the thing, take all personal testimony as false unless you witness it and record what happened. There you go, I just made life much simpler for you. There is an interesting effect in weight loss, but it applies to so many more things. That is when a lot of people diet they record particular things like how much they ate at a meal, but not how much they snacked. When you have a third party observer record everything that observer gets a much different calorie intake amount than the person dieting. This is also true for almost any human claim that is not backed up by outside observation. We do all kinds of things subconsciously. We cut out any information that may look bad. The words we say have huge amounts of assumptions build in for 'us' but may not apply to anyone else on the planet. This is why science quite commonly finds reality is in direct opposition to how our minds think it works. I honestly think this is some fundamental limit of single observer based intelligence.
	▲	Centigonal a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		For this reason, I think it's important to listen to testimonies from both: people who've succeeded at the thing you want to do, as well as people who failed. That way, you can get a grasp of the common traits of successful examples while also understanding the most common failure modes.

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suncemoje a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I found it refreshing when I heard Sam Altman "refuse" to give advice on Lex Fridman's podcast a few years ago:

"I tell people not to listen to too much advice. Listening to advice from other people should be approached with great caution ..." [0]

[0] https://youtu.be/L_Guz73e6fw?si=J7iKIBd5h9Avdu5S&t=8329 (timestamped)

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Hasz a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

imo, the easier and more likely-to-be-successful podcast idea is to press successful people on times they failed. Very few are going to be "first at bat, hit a homerun"; those people are not as interesting anyways to interview.

You solve the credibility problem (they ended up successful) while still distilling down the more valuable failures.

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wat10000 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Case studies are of very limited utility regardless, especially when studied by the subject themselves.

The most informative are rigorous population studies. Unfortunately, those tend to reach depressing and not necessarily useful conclusions like "the most likely way to achieve wealth is to have successful parents."

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NonAlgorithmic a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I came here to check someone has already made this comment. I tend to pay more attention when someone lists 'luck' as one of the first reasons for their success. I find it's a good indicator that their advice will come with humility.

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rrr_oh_man a day ago | parent | prev [-]

A ton of YC advice (e.g. I remember a Mondo co-founder) is "We did X, and it really worked, but it was a really bad and dangerous idea, so don't do X" without stopping to think whether X might have been the reason the company survived in the first place. Basically: do as I say, not as I do / did.