You might be the wisest person in the world but unless you take time to understand people and their situations, your advice will always be less than useful. Here is the reasons why your advice might not be the source of wisdom you think it is. ## 1. You don’t understand their situation It’s easy from the outside to think you have a person’s situation figured out but the truth is that you probably don’t. You are not that person and you might easily miss the many nuances that the person is having to deal with. ## 2. You don’t understand their priorities You have your own priorities and other people have theirs. Your advice will most likely be based on your own priorities and thus, if you haven’t taken the time to understand what your audience values, your advice will not address the issues. My advice? Take time to understand people and their situation before blurting out and summarizing their whole life.