Why most debates are pointless
Posted by Alan Pritt on May 24, 2006
I just watched a quick video on You Tube about evolution of the eye. I’m always drawn to the comments below these videos, possibly because I find it fascinating how pointless they usually are. Due to the lack of monitoring of the comments they usually quickly turn into an extremely heated debate.
Debates are wonderful things. They show the human mind at it’s best. Unfortunately debates also show us at our worst.
There are many ingredients required for a worthwhile debate, but I think I may have just spotted the number one reason most debates are pointless.
Seeking the truth (which should be the primary aim of a debate) takes time. In some cases a LOT of time.
Most debates I witness are constrained in someway by time, and so they never get resolved. If we are going to make maximum progress we need to keep debating with the same people over and over again, not have the same debates with many people.
Focus your debating time on a select few people and you will actually make some progress.
This entry was posted on May 24, 2006 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Communication, Social Skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
