This reminds me of an article I read a few months back from a child psychologist regarding telling a child they can be anything they want to be when they grow up. According to him this is the wrong thing to tell the child. Instead you should tell them they may try many things in life before they find the one thing they are truly good at. If someone asks for advice I will try to give the most honest and kind response. If they are wanting me to agree with them and I can't, that's when no response is given. And yes I still try to live by "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all".