Chapter 302: Seventy-Fifth Floor, the Old Man and the Spirits (8)
[Resolve the old man’s regrets. Time remaining: 9 hours 20 minutes.]
Although I wasn’t particularly old, I had received plenty of advice over the course of my life. Sometimes, it was by choice, while at other times, it was not. As was often the case on Earth, most of it concerned work, education, life in general, or relationships.
Naturally, every piece of advice was colored by the speaker’s personality, worldview, and life experience; therefore, it couldn’t be taken at face value. That was why the same guidance could be a lifesaver to one person and nothing more than tired lecturing to another.
In any case, I generally made it a point to listen to advice when it came my way. As long as it wasn’t completely nonsense from beginning to end, there was usually at least some merit in it.
Even if I didn’t take it to heart, I could weigh and pick out what could be useful. Even if none of it applied, I could still use it to understand how the other person viewed the world.
Despite that, among all the advice offered to me, there was one type I particularly disliked.
Advice that is completely irrelevant to me, or offered without reason.
For instance, when someone who had destroyed their life gambling turned around and solemnly told me not to gamble.
Since I had never even had the thought to begin with, that kind of unnecessary advice was downright infuriating.
More often than not, people who gave advice like that brimmed with self-importance. They assumed everyone thought and acted the way they did, or they couldn’t fully acknowledge their own mistakes.
Maybe it was just my own bias, but that was how it always seemed to play out in my experience. They treated their words as priceless insights from a wizened sage.
Additionally, the fact that such people were usually my seniors only added to the infuriation.