Advice (opinion)

Advice is a form of relating personal opinions, belief systems, personal values and recommendations about certain situations relayed in some context to another person, group or party often offered as a guide to action and/or conduct. Advice is believed to be theoretical, and is often considered taboo as well as helpful. The kinds of advice can range from systems of instructional and practical toward more esoteric and spiritual, and is often attributable toward problem solving, strategy seeking, and solution finding, either from a social standpoint or a personal one. Advice may pertain to relationships, lifestyle changes, legal choices, business goals, personal goals, career goals, education goals, religious beliefs, personal growth, motivation, inspiration and so on. Advice is not pertinent to any solid criteria, and may be given freely, or only given when asked upon. In some cultures advice is socially unacceptable to be released unless requested. In other cultures advice is given more openly. Basically a more acceptable definition is that advice is merely an opinion about what a person or group could or should do in any given situation.

Many expressions and quotations have been used to describe the status of advice, whether given, or received. One such expression is "Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." ~Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life, 1977. This particular quotation pertains the belief system that states that the answers to one's questions are within themselves, and do not come from any external stimuli. The accuracy of this particular belief is often disputed among theologians, philosophers, etc. However, a person who would hold such a belief, would "advise" another person to seek the answers out from within one's own esoteric and inner spiritual natures.

Advice when adhered to and followed may be beneficial, non-beneficial, damaging, non-damaging, partially beneficial and partially damaging, in reference to personal or social paradigms. In other words, not all advice is either "all good" or "all bad."

Therefore some people may come to the conclusion that advice is morally better to be left out of the equation altogether, and this theory is included within the following quote: "The best advice is this: Don't take advice and don't give advice." ~Author Unknown

Yet, often in society advice has been helpful. A more day to day example would be "Eat your vegetables." or "Don't drink and drive." If this advice is adhered to we can see that the benefits would outweigh the consequences.

Many people consider unrequested advise to be paternalistic and patronizing and are thus offended.

Grammatically speaking, the word advice is a non-count noun, like rice or milk.