I have learned as a general rule to never give unsolicited advice. at best it comes off as condescending. at worst, they misinterpret your advice and wind up blaming you for their problems.
Oh yeah definitely avoid the unsolicited kind.
Unsolicited advice is the best advice.
There is a lot of truth to this. Someone who comes to you and asks for advice has almost certainly already considered their situation and is processing it. Whether or not they make the right choices it at least was likely done with some measure of thought on their own. All you are really doing when offering advice is assisting someone in processing their own thoughts. They're solidly into the thought process just by asking for advice.
Someone who doesn't ask for advice may have given careful thought to things already, but may not have, you don't know they haven't discussed it with you.
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