alt Hacker NewsThere are so many podcasts where "successful" people (within a narrow definition of success) give advice.
The issue there, is that for every "successful" person, there are thousads who did the exact same things and didn't make it. Arguably a better thing would be to interview the ones who failed, and learn lessons from them.
Secondly, the person themselves can be selective in what they share, they may talk about the risks they took to get where they are, but not about the backstop of a wealthy family to fall back on if it all goes wrong (for example).
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I found it refreshing when I heard Sam Altman "refuse" to give advice on Lex Fridman's podcast a few years ago:
"I tell people not to listen to too much advice. Listening to advice from other people should be approached with great caution ..." [0]
[0] https://youtu.be/L_Guz73e6fw?si=J7iKIBd5h9Avdu5S&t=8329 (timestamped)
imo, the easier and more likely-to-be-successful podcast idea is to press successful people on times they failed. Very few are going to be "first at bat, hit a homerun"; those people are not as interesting anyways to interview.
You solve the credibility problem (they ended up successful) while still distilling down the more valuable failures.
Case studies are of very limited utility regardless, especially when studied by the subject themselves.
The most informative are rigorous population studies. Unfortunately, those tend to reach depressing and not necessarily useful conclusions like "the most likely way to achieve wealth is to have successful parents."
A ton of YC advice (e.g. I remember a Mondo co-founder) is "We did X, and it really worked, but it was a really bad and dangerous idea, so don't do X" without stopping to think whether X might have been the reason the company survived in the first place. Basically: do as I say, not as I do / did.
I came here to check someone has already made this comment. I tend to pay more attention when someone lists 'luck' as one of the first reasons for their success. I find it's a good indicator that their advice will come with humility.
This is a common sentiment but I don’t actually know if it’s true. I feel like a lot of people claim they did exactly the same things, but when you get down to the details, it turns out they didn’t really work as much, didn’t spend time meeting the right people, etc.
Saying “it’s all just luck” is just a defensive mechanism, in a lot of ways.