[grenran]

This is a bad example. A good sysadmin should fact-check and do testing themselves instead of relying on what other people say.

[simonw]

Feel free to come up with a better example that uses the same basic pattern: someone online claims that they have prior experience with X and hence advises you to do Y.

[neilwilson]

Trust and Verify.

The world has been full of snake oil salesmen since the dawn of time, all with a highly persuasive sob-stories.

If you rely on shortcuts, like anecdotes or 'credentialism' for those who profess to be experts, then you will get rolled over regularly. That's the cost of using shortcuts.

That information may be fraudulent and put forward by this season's Dr Andrew Wakefield has to be factored into any plan for using external sources.