300+ tips from Machiavelli on advice

…a prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised…

This line from Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince nicely sums-up my thoughts on the value of advice, tips and hints. The irony of any advice—whether the topic is branding, dating, dancing, painting, fencing—is that it can’t be fully understood without some personal experience in the matter.

Dale Carnegie, when describing how readers can get the most from his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, quotes Bernard Shaw:

If you teach a man anything, he will never learn.

One can only really learn by doing, by making mistakes, and not by following someone else’s abridged instructions. The tips might get you a quick ‘n’ dirty result, but after that, you’re none the wiser and will need more hints to get you through the next problem. (A five-step assembly sheet for an Ikea table will get me a table but won’t make me a carpenter. By the same token, a Smashing Magazine list might get you a few sexy effects for your next site, but does that really make you a designer?)

To anyone with genuine aspirations to be great and to really improve themselves, drop the ridiculous lists of quick fixes and shortcuts and start learning for yourself by doing and by making mistakes.