[Note: I’m not sure if this was your concern—let me know if what I write below seems off the mark.]
The most accurate belief is rarely the best advice to give; there is a reason why these corrections tend to happen in a certain order. People holding the naive view need to hear the first correction, those who overcompensated need to hear the second correction. The technically most accurate view is the one that the fewest people need to hear.
I invoke this pattern to forestall a useless conversation about whose advice is objectively best.
In fact, I think it would be a good practice to always before giving advice, do your best to trace back to the naive view and count the reversals, and inform your reader on which level you are advising. (This is surprisingly doable if you bother to do it.)
In fact, I think it would be a good practice to always before giving advice, do your best to trace back to the naive view and count the reversals, and inform your reader on which level you are advising. (This is surprisingly doable if you bother to do it.)
Here we go: the pattern of this conversation is “first correction, second correction, accurate belief” (see growth triplets).
Naive view: “learn from masters”
The OP is the first correction: “learn from people just above you”
Your comment is the second correction: “there are cases where teacher’s advice is better quality”
The accurate belief takes all of this into account: “it’s best learn from multiple people in a way that balances wisdom against accessibility”
I worry that some kind of fallacy of grey is going on here which loses despite being technically more accurate.
[Note: I’m not sure if this was your concern—let me know if what I write below seems off the mark.]
The most accurate belief is rarely the best advice to give; there is a reason why these corrections tend to happen in a certain order. People holding the naive view need to hear the first correction, those who overcompensated need to hear the second correction. The technically most accurate view is the one that the fewest people need to hear.
I invoke this pattern to forestall a useless conversation about whose advice is objectively best.
In fact, I think it would be a good practice to always before giving advice, do your best to trace back to the naive view and count the reversals, and inform your reader on which level you are advising. (This is surprisingly doable if you bother to do it.)
I quite like this.