Advice on how, not what

Too often we try to be helpful to someone else, but we fail to realize that what we are offering is nothing more than stale platitudes. We feel free to offer our ideas on what the person should do, but we make no effort to explain how he should do it. And most of the time people know what they want to do, it is this how that is a mystery.

For example, if you are looking for a job and you ask a friend for advice, she might say something like: you should look at jobs in the tech sector, it is hot right now! This little piece of advice tells you what to do, but do you know how to do it? Where do you find these tech jobs?

A parent tells her child that she should avoid guys who are too aggressive. Solid advice, perhaps, but does the child know how to do that? How does an aggressive guy act? How should she stay away from him, even if she knows he’s aggressive?