How To Talk To People + The Problem With Debate
How To Talk To People + The Problem With Debate
One powerful reflection for talking to friends and family about alternative perspectives, and why I think we need to stop overvaluing debate.
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In the video below I address two things:
Common challenges people have talking to their friends and family about current events, politics, consciousness etc. And how to approach it differently.
The problem with overvaluing debate - something I think we do too much right now.
Back in 2017, I created a short course for our members called How To Talk To Friends and Family About Truth Seeking & Consciousness.
I know, the title of the course is the length of a short novel, but that’s OK. It worked :)
My goal was to offer ideas, frameworks, and embodied practices to help folks attune better to themselves so they can share their ideas, thoughts, and curiosities with others in a way that produces much less friction. If friction does occur, great, the tools would help them be OK with that.
I spent time on this back then because SOO MANY PEOPLE would say they struggle with talking to their friends and family about different perspectives… but I couldn’t say I had that experience myself… “Why?” I thought.
Through the course, I thought I could share more about what I do and how I show up in case it’s different from what others do….
I found out my experience of things is very different and thus there was something cool to offer.
In the video below I share one useful takeaway we can all consider.
Beyond that bit, I’ve never been a huge fan of debating. Is there value in it? Of course, but I’ve always been more curious to see two experts synthesize and build on their ideas together vs. trying to defeat each other.
Certainly, debating illustrates whether someone can understand themselves and another person, and skillfully argue their ideas. These are useful skills to have and I’m not critiquing debate to shun the skills that can be seen within the process.
Moreso, I think debate is overvalued and in the video I share why.
Nice to see you back! Lovin this content!
Treating people with respect and care is foreign these days. I like what you have suggested here and agree with you... progress is not made by treating people like crap and puking all over them. In roads are made through care.