Quick answer
People carry more than they say. The verse describes the skill of getting it up to the surface.
Read both lines
The image is a well rather than a lake, and the difference matters, because a well holds something worth having and holds it out of reach. So the first line is generous about people: what is down there is counsel, not confusion, and the depth is a feature. The second line names a skill and locates it in the listener. Drawing water takes a bucket, patience, and the willingness to lower something. This is one of the few verses in the book that describes what good listening actually accomplishes, and it treats it as an accomplishment rather than as politeness. It also assumes something worth pausing over. The counsel was already in the other person, so the understanding man is not supplying wisdom to someone who lacked it. He is retrieving what they could not reach alone.
Related: Proverbs 18:4 · Proverbs 18:13 · Proverbs 20:18
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.