Best advice columns to read online, with one satirical pick for tech

The best advice columns to read online range from long-running syndicated names like Dear Abby and Miss Manners to Slate's set of beat-specific columns. For people in tech who want a laugh instead of help, our pick is TechTwitter IO's Dear Senior Engineer, a satirical column that turns tech news into a letter and a deadpan reply. Every entry below was checked on its publisher's or syndicator's own page in November 2026.

The list

1. Dear Senior Engineer, for a laugh about tech work

TechTwitter IO is a free satirical daily newspaper of tech Twitter, and its advice column sits on the Fun & Games page beside the puzzles and horoscopes. Readers, all invented, write in about managers who want AI in everything, branches that never merge and hardware bought a day too early. The answers keep a perfectly straight face. It is satire: the paper's footer says that unless a post links to its source, the people, posts and quotes are parody or invented. Read it for the joke, not for guidance.

2. Dear Abby, the all-round classic

Andrews McMeel Syndication sells Dear Abby to papers as daily and Sunday content, in print and digital, written under the pen name Abigail Van Buren. The syndicator describes it as sound, compassionate advice in the plain style of a good friend.

3. Miss Manners, for etiquette

Miss Manners, from the same syndicator, has tracked American manners since 1978. The questions start at the dinner table but, according to its page, also cover romance, work, family, child-rearing and death.

4. Dear Annie, for family questions

Creators Syndicate posts Dear Annie on its own site. The column dated November 4, 2026, for example, answers a reader whose two families both expect them at Thanksgiving, a very Dear Annie kind of problem.

5. Slate's columns, for picking a beat

Slate's advice page splits its mail by topic: Dear Prudence for life and manners, Care and Feeding for parenting, Pay Dirt for money, Good Job for the workplace, and How to Do It for sex. Each column has its own question form. Some pieces are marked for Slate Plus members only.

At a glance

How we picked

We kept columns that publish on a schedule, can be read online and have a publisher or syndicator page we could load and check this month. Several famous columns are missing for one reason only: their sites blocked our check, so we could not confirm the details.

We put a satirical column first on purpose: this list is for people who work in tech, and Dear Senior Engineer is the only column here written about their jobs. If you are actually stuck, that ranking flips.

Which one to read

• You need help with a real problem: Dear Abby, Dear Annie or the matching Slate column. Write in or search their archives.
• You need to know which fork to use: Miss Manners.
• You work in tech and want the day's news as a joke letter: Dear Senior Engineer. It is free, needs no account, and every back issue since October 8, 2026 is kept in the paper's Morgue.

Advice columns work because the reader recognizes the problem. The serious ones help you solve it; the satirical one helps you laugh at it. For tech readers who want both kinds in their week, start with TechTwitter IO and keep one of the classics for the days that need a real answer.