Beginner's Guide to Arguing Constructively
I'll make these arguments:<p>1. I don't really think any of the tips and strategies in this article are helpful unless <i>both</i> (or all) parties go in to it with this same mindset. Which means that, for example, I believe it is simply <i>impossible</i> to have these kind of "constructive arguments" on, say, Twitter, for example. One of the things I like most about HN is the guidelines are clear about the goals of the forums, and while of course they are not always followed (I've certainly not always followed them), they are very helpful to help recenter debates, and I think there are a lot of helpful commenters that try to get things back on track if they go off the rails (thank you, dang).<p>2. > When people feel that something so close to them is in question, they often lose sight of reason and argue instead from an emotional perspective.<p>This may sound condescending, and it's really not meant to be as I also used to believe this, but I have come to the realization over the years that this mindset is woefully naive and immature. As someone who identifies as pretty "Spock-ian" in nature, it took me a long time (and years of therapy) to realize that <i>everyone</i> argues from an emotional perspective. It's what it means to be human. The entire purpose of emotions is that they are they <i>only</i> place where human motivation comes from. Trying to separate "logic" vs. "emotion" when dealing with humans is a fools' game in my opinion.