The 3 Best Pieces of Unsolicited Advice I've Ever Received

29 Jun 2025 #misc

You know that saying, “Don’t give advice unless asked?”

Well, some people ignored it and gave it anyway. Here are the best pieces of advice I’ve received:

From high school:

“Read, because if you don’t read, you won’t learn anything.”

That was from my philosophy teacher in high school. He said it all the time. I don’t remember much from his class, but for some reason that line has stayed with me.

If I still remember that years later, he did his job.

From my first job:

“Imagine you make half of your salary, save the other half.”

A senior co-worker at my first coding job gave me that totally unexpectedly. That lesson stuck with me so much, I couldn’t resist adding it to my an email course I created years later.

From my last full-time job:

“Diversify your career.”

That was from one of my not-mentors. I reached out to him when I wasn’t sure about where to take my software engineering career. We had many 1-on-1s. That’s what I remember the most. It was good advice. I didn’t follow it. I burned out.