WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.929 JustLearn. Personal experience is a starting point, not the whole map. Your 00:00:05.929 --> 00:00:11.857 own experience can offer valuable insight while leaving important questions unanswered. This 00:00:11.857 --> 00:00:13.834 edition uses synthetic narration. 00:00:13.834 --> 00:00:18.552 Preserve the detail that makes the experience useful. ‘It worked for me’ 00:00:18.552 --> 00:00:23.271 may introduce a helpful example, but the useful information usually comes afterwards. 00:00:23.271 --> 00:00:27.990 What did you try, under which conditions, for how long and with 00:00:27.990 --> 00:00:32.709 what result? Without those details, the listener may apply your conclusion to 00:00:32.709 --> 00:00:37.427 a very different situation. Imagine recommending a way to organise a shared 00:00:37.427 --> 00:00:42.146 project. It helped when three friends could meet every week. A group 00:00:42.146 --> 00:00:46.865 spread across countries may face a different problem. Your experience is still 00:00:46.865 --> 00:00:51.584 relevant, but it needs its setting attached so that another person can 00:00:51.584 --> 00:00:52.763 judge the fit. 00:00:52.763 --> 00:00:57.048 Notice the parts you did not observe. You may know the outcome 00:00:57.048 --> 00:01:01.332 without knowing every cause. A new routine coincided with an improvement; that 00:01:01.332 --> 00:01:05.616 does not tell you how much came from the routine, a quieter 00:01:05.616 --> 00:01:09.901 period or help you received at the same time. You also cannot 00:01:09.901 --> 00:01:14.185 see every person for whom a similar attempt produced a different result. 00:01:14.185 --> 00:01:18.469 This is a reason for modest wording, not a reason to discard 00:01:18.469 --> 00:01:22.754 lived experience. ‘Here is what happened in my case’ leaves room for 00:01:22.754 --> 00:01:27.038 comparison. ‘This is what always works’ asks your example to support more 00:01:27.038 --> 00:01:28.466 than it can establish. 00:01:28.466 --> 00:01:33.117 Turn the story into a question someone can test. After sharing an 00:01:33.117 --> 00:01:37.769 experience, help the other person identify what they could try on a 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:42.420 manageable scale. Which feature might transfer? What would they need to adapt? 00:01:42.420 --> 00:01:47.071 How would they know whether it was useful in their own circumstances? 00:01:47.071 --> 00:01:51.723 A small experiment may be appropriate for a routine or a creative 00:01:51.723 --> 00:01:56.374 project. High-stakes decisions need more than an anecdote and a trial. In 00:01:56.374 --> 00:02:01.026 either case, avoid treating disagreement as a rejection of your life. Another 00:02:01.026 --> 00:02:05.677 person's different experience can add to the map. The strongest contribution you 00:02:05.677 --> 00:02:10.328 can make may be a well-described example that improves the next question, 00:02:10.328 --> 00:02:14.204 rather than a personal story presented as the final answer. 00:02:14.204 --> 00:02:18.872 A question to take with you. What is similar enough for my 00:02:18.872 --> 00:02:23.540 experience to help, and what is different enough to matter? First published 00:02:23.540 --> 00:02:27.430 by JustLearn. Read the original article at justlearn dot online.