At this point in the book of Proverbs, Solomon has repeated this advice again and again. If God is repeatedly telling us to hear counsel and listen to instruction, we are wise to assume that we naturally ignore counsel and reject instruction. This isn’t necessarily a tendency in every area of our lives; just the area’s that we care about. It’s one thing to hear Biblical instruction in an area of life that you are confused about; it’s quite another to be told that the Bible is directly oppose to what you have already decided you are going to do. To hear counsel assumes that you are seeking counsel. To seek counsel is to seek wisdom from an outside source that you are confident will give biblical advice, not tip-toe around your preferences. To receive instruction presupposes that you are seeking instruction. To seek instruction means that you are not simply making decisions based on the information that you have, but you are looking for those areas that you might not have considered, in order to make a decision that pleases God. When you consider this in light of the goal of the entire book of Proverbs, we can confidently say that one of the best ways to make a foolish decision is to decide that you will make it on your own.