A person receiving help can still have useful advice the helper has never considered.

Being on the receiving end of help does not make someone less knowledgeable, though the arrangement often behaves as if it did. The person needing assistance usually has more experience of the problem than anyone assisting, and knows which method works and which wastes an hour. Help that flows only one way loses that information. The expertise and the need are sitting in the same person.

As the helper, ask how before deciding for them. What has worked before, what to avoid, what they would do if their hands were free. And if you are the one being helped, offer the instruction plainly rather than waiting to be consulted.