Round 1
Pro: Experience is often lauded as a necessity to knowledge, overshadowing the value of advice. Both giving and receiving advice is helpful in ways that just living through the event or issue can’t compete with. For example, when a person is asked for advice, it gives them a feeling of value and allows relationships to be built or strengthened. The one asking for advice now has someone to fall back on when they face future issues like the one they’re currently working through. In addition, by listening to others’ knowledge, one can avoid certain issues better or find certain opportunities faster. For example, asking a professor for advice on where to start research saves much time and effort. The professor will probably be pleased that you value their knowledge and you will know who to turn to the next time you have such a question. By doing so, the requester relieves themselves of some of the stress of whatever they face.
Con: Experience can be the only ticket to ultimate knowledge; nothing else. Listening to advice is like believing something is true because you’ve been told it is. It doesn’t matter if you believe or disbelieve something because it does not change the existential reality. When you don’t know something, you have to believe it. But when you experience something you simply know it. Your past experience need not be enough to guide you through and advice might be needed. In that case, just take it. The problem is not with the advice, but with identifying with it. Remember that advice is also a result of an experience. If you listen to others’ knowledge and think that’s the only way it has to be, then you might restrict numerous possibilities that you could have explored. You don’t take the advice to make someone feel special, do you? If you are too dependent on your advisors, you will never consider going that extra mile. Let’s say your professor gave you the advice to follow in research. Now, this piece of their knowledge will be applicable only if those same situations are applied to you. What if you face a new circumstance altogether? No advice will work here except the experience that you had in the past.
Round 2
Pro: While it’s true that advice comes from experience, there is something to be said for the limitations of experience. There is only so much that any one person can experience, so to say that experience is the ultimate way to learn is to limit yourself. Of course, there are numerous things to learn from others and there’s no way we can learn everything. But the true limitation of experience comes when we believe that only it is the best way to learn. When this happens, we end up with the mentality that says, “well, if I didn’t see it happen, it didn’t happen.” This isolates us from others, creating barriers where there should be communication. But when we share our experiences and learn from one another’s successes and failures, we create a community whose legacy can do greater things than any one person. So, go ahead, experience life. Just remember to give and receive advice along the way.
Con: Advice is important but experience is what happens to you. In other words, it is actual life that happens to you. When in an unknown territory it is advisable to take advice, but advice just gets you in. The way you perform afterward depends on how you experience the situation moment by moment. Experience need not only be something that happened in the past. If you are conscious you will observe that every moment is an experience and a teacher to learn from. Advice is just like road signs. They tell you what to do next when you are new to the location and don’t know where to go. But the moment there is no sign you become super attentive and use your past episodes to navigate through. Wise directions in life should be listened to, but they are not the only way to progress. Some may have had a bad experience in life when handling a situation. Maybe you could have handled it better. Now taking that advice, in this case, wouldn’t make sense. You must have observed that some moments of your life were so awesome you feel short of words while describing them. That’s the immensity of experience.
Con side debated by Paras Ghumare
