When someone hands you free advice, ask who benefits if you take it.

Advice is rarely neutral, even when it is sincere. People recommend the thing that worked for them, the thing that makes their own choices look right, or the thing that happens to suit them if you do it. None of that makes it wrong. It just means the advice carries a position, and knowing the position tells you how much to weigh it.

When somebody tells you what to do, ask yourself what changes for them if you follow it. Ask people whose answer gains them nothing. Those are the opinions worth paying attention to.