What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
Recorded Tony Fadell said elsewhere, not written here
every time I heard the word “smart” attached to anything, it means it’s pretty dumb, because no one knows what it really does. They just add “smart” as a prefix to say, “Oh, you must buy this, because it’s smart.” If they can’t tell you what it does and why it does it, don’t buy it just because it says “smart.”

Academy of Achievement interview, 5 February 2016 source ↗

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Nick Cave Songwriter, musician and novelist
Many creative people, especially the young, may feel their chaotic or disordered relationship with the world is indispensable to their creative freedom. The more anarchic, the better! However, after considerable fieldwork in this area, I have yet to find it so. I have come to understand that the muscle of the imagination is strengthened through resistance, discipline and order.
Recorded Jai, The Red Hand Files, Issue #302, 28 October 2024 source ↗
Elinor Ostrom Political economist; laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, 2009
Yes, but not with a formula. So there are many, many efforts now to decentralize and they create a rigid formula and give people rules from on top and say, 'Now it's yours.' And that isn't worked very well either. … And, you think about the variety. If you look at a countryside, think of the variety out there in terms of the ecological variety. Well, if people are going to manage ecological variety, no single set of rules will work in a semi-arid versus a tropical-wet region. They have to be different.
Recorded Adam Smith, Telephone interview recorded immediately after the prize announcement, Nobel Prize Outreach, 12 October 2009 source ↗
Magnus Carlsen Norwegian chess grandmaster; World Chess Champion 2013–2023
Not very well. I try to win the next one. I've always been told that you should win and lose with a smile, but since I became a professional, I've thought the best way of learning to deal with defeat is not to lose.
Recorded On-stage interview, Milken Institute Global Conference, Los Angeles, Chess.com, 5 May 2017 source ↗
Muhammad Yunus Founder of Grameen Bank; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2006
I am in favor of strengthening the freedom of the market. At the same time, I am very unhappy about the conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. This originates from the assumption that entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings, who are dedicated to one mission in their business lives − to maximize profit.
Recorded Nobel Peace Prize lecture, Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2006 source ↗

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