it absolutely is most people most of the time. just ponder how many advice columns and platitudinous commencement speeches and gurus and old cranky uncles and pretentious 8th grade teachers (and etc etc etc) there are. hell think of the likelihood of getting XYed in our very own industry.

> folks advise others to do the thing(s) that they _did_ do.

the meat of the point isn't that people exaggerate. even giving people the benefit of the doubt, that they don't exaggerate, they're giving you advice that's 99% of the time non-transferrable, i.e., completely useless for you and serving only the purpose of enabling them to take a nice trip down memory lane. if i'm asking someone for advice, that's an expert, i'm not asking them what worked for them in the instance of the problem they face; i'm asking them about my instance. and it is a very rare person that knows you well enough and takes the time and care and effort to advise someone individually and/or germainely.