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+# over-indexing on respected people's opinions
+
+## what happened
+
+when mentors or people you admire give feedback, it's easy to take it as gospel. someone with 20 years of experience says "you should do X" and you reorganize your whole plan around it.
+
+## why it's a gotcha
+
+their context is different from yours. a VC's advice is optimized for VC-scale outcomes. a professor's advice is shaped by academic incentives. a mentor's suggestion is filtered through their own experience, which may not map to your situation. they're not wrong — their advice is just for a different game than the one you're playing.
+
+## the fix
+
+weigh advice, don't swallow it whole. when someone you respect gives feedback, ask yourself: what's their context? what game are they playing? does this advice apply to my specific situation, or to a situation that looks like mine from the outside? take what's useful, leave the rest.
+
+## see also
+
+- [[fomo-trap]] — both are about external signals overriding internal clarity
+- [[networking-as-extraction]] — extracting advice is still extraction
+- [[comparison-as-motivation]] — borrowed motivation, borrowed direction
+- [[figure-out-what-you-want-before-partners]] — know your own goals first
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