Thread by @JamesCurrier

1/ Some advice about advice. As Founders, we get a lot of advice... from a lot of people. Not all valuable. But there will be gems, and spotting them can change your company.

4 key areas to navigating advice — mastering them enables decision superpowers.

nfx.com/post/guide-fou…

2/ Here are the 4 keys to navigating advice:

1. Be ruthless when choosing your network of advisors
2. Manage the psychology of advice — yours and the givers
3. Differentiate the types of decisions you're trying to make when getting advice
4. Learn judgment about good/bad advice

3/ Your network determines the quality of advice you receive.

Cultivate your advice network. You need to be brutal. Judge the quality of your surrounding network nodes.

4/ There are four levels of advisors:

1. You. Your gut and your instincts.
2. Your 'Inner Circle'
3. Quarterly Discussion advisors
4. Infrequent

Map out your advice network and allocate time accordingly.

5/ Picking through the flow of advice to find the gems — and then gathering the strength to act on those gems —is mostly about your psychology.

Understanding your own psychology about receiving advice is something to be learned and practiced.

6/ You will favor advice that:

1. Confirms your prior beliefs
2. Feeds your ego
3. Delays difficult decisions and loss of faith
4. Is more recent
5. Advice that came in first
6. Comes from a person you favor
7. Comes in a personal style you favor

7/ The advice-giver also struggles with cognitive biases:

1. Projecting their experiences on you
2. Projecting their personality on you
3. Projecting their own situation
4. Projecting their time into the present
5. Being overly protective
6. Groupthink
7. Difficulty empathizing

8/ When you are taking advice, someone’s advice will be ignored. They might feel disrespected.

This is part of being a founder and it's inevitable. Make sure you communicate clearly that even advice you ignore is helpful.

9/ What types of decisions do you need advice for?

1. Smaller, Tactical Decisions
Move quickly. Ask domain experts. Involve your team. Delegate.

2. Bigger Decisions
Still move quickly. Act with only 70% information. Avoid advice paralysis.

10/ What is Good Advice and What is Bad Advice?

- If all your advisors are in agreement, that's a strong signal
- Assess the second and third-order impacts
- Cliched advice can be lame... but right
- It starts with you — manage your advice network

And use the advice matrix:

11/ Taking advice is a skill.

Mastering this skill will give you decision superpowers and an unfair advantage.

Read our full @nfx essay here:

nfx.com/post/guide-fou…