Looking for a tweet on the perils of giving advice

October 7, 2021 4:55 PM

In the last 3-4 days I wooshed by a Tweet that I neglected to bookmark. It linked to an article on giving advice, and said something along the lines of "giving advice communicates that we are more important and knowledgeable as the recipient, we see them as less" and it may have use the phrase "the tyranny of advice." Please help me find the tweet or article! Thanks.
posted by mecran01 to Human Relations (5 answers total)

Twitter has advanced search options that may be helpful. For example, the phrase "the tyranny of advice" has not appeared on Twitter in the last month.

There are other search options that could help. For example, you could search for tweets that include "tyranny" and "advice" and only show results from accounts you follow.

The web client for Twitter gives you a form that you can use to access the advanced search options. It's linked from the right hand side after you do a search.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:21 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Other potentially useful options:

filter:links - only include tweets with links
filter:follows - only include tweets from people you follow

Warning: searching Twitter for tweets that include "tyranny" and "advice" will bring up scads of anti-vaxxer complaining.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:29 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Could it be this article by Tressie McMillan Cottom that was published 6 days ago? Why Everyone Is Always Giving Unsolicited Advice
posted by wicked_sassy at 5:44 PM on October 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you, @wicked_sassy, that is the article, and this is the paragraph:

That is the thing about advice: It is seductive. Even though we resist being judged, we enjoy being the judge. Advice is a method by which we manipulate status to negotiate interpersonal interactions. By giving advice, we enact tiny theaters of social dominance to signal or procure our social status over others.
posted by mecran01 at 6:26 PM on October 7, 2021 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: I guess I conflated "tiny" and "dominance" and thought I saw the word "tyranny" which looks a little like tiny and expresses the idea of dominance.
posted by mecran01 at 6:33 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]