[johngunderman]

I interpreted as "write on the paper at a 90 degree angle to the lines" (aka not the way you should be doing it). This seems to be a standard rehashing of "going against the grain", advice to be different, to not follow expectations. That's not what I would necessarily call bad advice.

[Jach]

The Esteemed Great Leader pg might say, or rather he did say in http://paulgraham.com/hs.html which I'll just quote:

"Rebellion is almost as stupid as obedience. In either case you let yourself be defined by what they tell you to do. The best plan, I think, is to step onto an orthogonal vector. Don't just do what they tell you, and don't just refuse to."