Research can be worth it
Three mini-stories why I suggest research. All of these have happened in the last month to me:
With Friend A: this is the friend that one day does the famous phrase- ‘I want to start a business’ and starts designing their brick and mortor store in their head. After about two weeks they felt almost ready to quit and start their business; with me as an employee. I did about three hours of research, made an initial plan for starting a business, and gave it to them. When they saw the price tag could be into hundreds of thousands dollars, they stopped for a while and talked things over. About 3 hours of research gave their family a realistic view of what was to come.
Boss C: Keeps talking about wanting to do 2 other things than our jobs. Boss keeps saying they’ll do it in their next life. I took half an hour and reasearched their second career choice (I knew the first one would take years). The second career option would take less than a year and could earn 10-20k as a part time job.
Me: I was looking at becoming an English teacher overseas. It would mean a commitment to finishing a Bachelor’s degree before I could even apply. I looked at the country I would want to apply to. I gave it over a week of research because it is something I would be donating the next 3-4 years of my life to. I factored in the odds of getting the job afterward with the stress of completeing a degree (weighing my personnal stress issues and health vs real expectation). Doing this gave an answer I am very happy with and allows me to focus my work better.
Short answer- 1/2 hour - a couple weeks research let 3 people make plans for the next 4 years of their lives.