The importance of context

Today’s post is going to be short (sort of) and sweet.

I want you to imagine a scenario where someone comes up to you and asks you the following question: “What’s the best car to buy?”

You would most likely think that the person didn’t give you enough information or that they are crazy or stupid or both. How in the universe can you know what the best car is? What purpose do you want your vehicle to serve? What’s your budget? What do you prefer? Do you have a family? How old are you?

These are just some of the relevant questions that might help guide you to the correct answer to the question above – figuring out what the best car is for someone to buy. Let me give you two concrete cases:

Imagine a married woman with a stable job in her late 30s who wants a safe, reliable car to get her kids to school and that she can use to get to the supermarket and back. The car you recommend to her will be obviously different from a rich, single man in his 40s who wants to impress easily impressible girls in their early 20s. In the second scenario you probably recommend something expensive and fast with an aesthetic appeal whereas the recommendation for the first scenario also has to take into consideration factors like affordability and functionality so you would opt for a family car.

You’re probably wondering why I bring this up. I bring it up because people usually don’t think about the context when they are looking for nutrition and exercise advice. They want to know what the best diet is, they want to know what the best exercise is. With the car story in mind, you should be able to realize that there is no single answer that applies to everybody. An athlete trying to prepare for an event is probably going to have vastly different nutritional requirements from someone just trying to lose weight. Not only do dietary recommendations depend on the goal, they also depend on the dieting history of the individual in question as well as their genetics, food preferences, weekly schedule, lifestyle, willingness to commit to a certain approach, ability to handle restrictions and the list goes on and on and on.

The same goes for exercises – “What’s the best exercise for chest?” – Again, it depends on a million factors. Are you a powerlifter? Because if you are, your sport demands that you barbell bench press. If you’re looking for pure size, there are a ton of options that depend on your preferences, injury history, lagging parts of the muscle, mechanics etc.

So when you find someone who knows what they are talking about, please be prepared to provide them with adequate context surrounding your question because in doing so you will ultimately get better quality advice and you will not look silly by asking “What’s the best diet” as if there was such a thing to begin with. There is no best exercise or diet in general, but for a specific case and a specific set of circumstances there very well might be.

In a nutshell, context is everything. Try to think about the context of questions and answers, arguments you might have with your friends or your partner, ideas being presented to you or anything and everything else.