September 4, 2021, 9:18 am
There are a lot of people out there who are going to try and tell you how to live and part of growing up is learning who should actually listen to. That means you’ll take some very bad advice along the way as well, but the people of Reddit are trying to help. In response to a question posted by u/sofsbear, they lined up to share all the horrible advice they took and lived to tell about.
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“What was the worst advice you have ever received?” was the question. Not everybody specified whether or not they took the horrible advice, though some humbly admitted they did. To all of them, I say thank you for your service. Your lessons are now our lessons, and we will take them with us into the future.
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1.
“Don’t study computer programming. The market is probably going to be saturated by the time you graduate.”
From a computer science professor in the mid-80s. —BrobdingnagLilliput
2.
In my early 20s, my stepdad encouraged us (us = Me, Sister and Brother) to max out our credit cards. Then file bankruptcy. My sister did it. My brother did it. I didn’t. He insulted me for years, for being stupid. —oh_jaimito
3.
My husband needed a medical card after his heart failure from viral cardiomyopathy. The social worker told me I should get pregnant so we would qualify for help with his medical costs. I was 24 and lived in Ohio. I was horrified. She listed all the “help” we could get if I could get pregnant. He was in an ICU ward recovering from heart surgery. I walked out of there just disgusted —shmoopiefunk
4.
At 24, while making $12 an hour and renting an apartment my parents convinced me to buy a brand new Honda Accord. They assured me it was the ONLY WAY to get a new car and that used ones broke down immediately.
The payments were one entire paycheck of the two I got every month. —Worlds_Best_Coffee
5.
From my father: don’t go to the doctor’s office if you only have one problem. Wait until you have four or five; that’s how you get the most bang for your buck —BrownEyeGivesPinkEye
6.
Me: I’m depressed and struggling with low sex drive Therapist: Haha I have the opposite problem! But have you tried watching a romcom? They always gets me in the mood.
This is a direct quote —murdie_t
7.
Invest in DVDs because you can pawn them for cash when you need money —jittery_raccoon
8.
“Just find a girl you don’t like. Once you get married you’ll just hate her anyways.”
God, I hope he was joking. —FenHarels_Heart
9.
Invest in brother-in-law’s bar. Thanks Dad. Bye bye 30k and bye bye bar. Did not know I’d be working along side an illiterate buffoon. —Alphacrap
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10.
Was told by a sailor of 5 decades that the best way to get rid of a sunburn is to take the hottest shower possible. Not only did that cause immeasurable pain, but didn’t help in the slightest. —BurlHopsBridge
11.
“Family over friends, because friends won’t always be there for you, family will.”
Fat load of crap that was. —TaborlinTheGreater
12.
“If you go work somewhere else no one will pay you as much as me.”
-my dad
I’m currently making twice as much plus benefits —Drafty_Dragon
13.
‘If you actually cared about being organised you wouldn’t have ‘ADHD’’ —JonnieWhoops
14.
“As a temporary measure, it’s ok to insert a copper penny into a screw-in fuse box circuit until replacement fuses can be obtained.”
That dangerous “advice” almost caused a house fire due to an overheating circuit. —Back2Bach
15.
It’s too late for you to learn to code – I was 14 —sudolake
16.
Not me but I remember reading a thread about a man who told his girlfriend everyday that she stinks. She washed two or three times daily, tried everything she could to get rid of this smell.
Until she cracked and started screaming at him asking wtf was he smelling. Apparently his father told him “tell a woman she smells everyday and she’ll be constantly clean.” He just took that as normal good advice to live by. —Sonnyboy1990
17.
Never change —proton0129
18.
To keep my mouth shut. Never argue or talk back to my partner. —Kirbinder
19.
“Put some butter on it” -My father to me directly after getting a 3rd degree burn on my arm (cooking accident) —ISnortBonedust
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20.
“All you have to do is prove to the woman that you are better than the man she is with and she will come running,” from a former manager who had seven girlfriends, and a wife (who stabbed him when she learned about the girlfriends). —Therearenogoodnames9
21.
Ignore the bullies. They just want a reaction. If you ignore them they’ll get bored and leave you alone.
This is my answer every time this question pops up. It is such unmitigated bullshit! The adults who gave me this advice (when I was a kid, in the 70s) must have had softer bullies than I did. Because yeah, my bullies wanted a reaction. And they’d keep going until they got one.
Note: They considered “tears of pain” and “blood” a reaction, as they beat the crap out of me. —revchewie
22.
“Follow your heart”
Sometimes my heart is stupid and I should listen to my brain instead. —SeaweedMonkey
23.
“enjoy your life when you’re in school, it’s going downhill from there”
don’t ever say that to a depressed teenager. as an adult my life is sooooo much better —hitenshi_SE
24.
My grandmother told me that if I wanted to stop being poor, I should find a job in logistics or warehousing.
I was literally managing a warehouse at the time. —GavinBelsonsAlexa
25.
“Just get a degree. It doesn’t matter which one.”
$40,000 and one unused degree later…. —SexyOldManSpaceJudo
26.
worst advice received and acted upon.
My friend out of high school got a job at Ford starting at $28/hour full time and in the UAW. His mom said he shouldn’t waste his life working “at a factory” and go to collage despite him having a 1.8 GPA in Highschool and very good with working with his hands. He quit, took 2 classes at college and dropped out. He spent the next 8 years making pizza because the job market was trash. —SaturnMarket
27.
“Winners never quit.” I think that is horrible advice. Calculated quitting is how you progress in life. If I never quit I would be stuck in bad situations. —Sunny245
28.
Lawyer said I should just admit that I did it.
I denied it and the case was dismissed. —Killerbeth
29.
“A mobile home is a great first home for a young couple.”
I wish I had looked into it more. When my company imploded, I was stuck with a $1000 mortgage payment AND $1100 monthly space rent. In the Los Angeles area. I got a job out of state. Could not sell the mobile home—park residents were giving up their old paid-off homes just to get out of their leases, and the park was selling the houses for $500. (That is an exact figure.) So no one wanted a brand-new house in the same park.
I had to just give up the house to the bank. Bank eventually sold it for less than half of the loan balance. My credit recovered 7–10 years later. —PeterAhlstrom
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30.
To bottle up my feelings and not go to therapy.
Now, at 46, I’m finally going to therapy, dealing with the fact I may have lost my marriage, and struggling to deal with all the crap that I have bottled up my entire life.
Go to f-cking therapy, deal with the crap and feelings that you don’t want too look at. It’s worth it. —Banluil
*First Published: September 4, 2021, 9:18 am
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