Wednesday, December 20, 2006

[winning debates] two simple principles

Calling all Daleks: Carter versus Ford

No, I can’t claim it as one of my own [only wish]. It’s one of Vox’s:

It is amazing how many debates one can win by applying two simple measures:

1. Always ask your opponent to explain his open-ended statements.

2. Always be prepared with an answer for the questions that are most likely to be raised by your own statements.

Do those two things and you'll not only win 90 percent of your debates within the first two minutes, but you'll usually make the other person look like a drooling idiot besides.

It took me a long time to accept how little thought goes into the vast majority of human speech, but now that I've finally accepted that the average individual really does suffer from a virtual chromosome disorder, I no longer find myself in a constant state of bemused astonishment.

3 comments:

  1. Good post about debates. The frustration of politics is the triumph of style over substance.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish too with written speech that I would both think more before writing and look a little bit harder at punctuation and spelling.

    Two rules that would please those whose sites I comment on too no doubt!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We need autocheckers.

    Style over substance - yes, that's right.

    ReplyDelete

Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.