Lately, every time I get into an argument, and the distance of online communication can make this rather easy, I am reminded of an article by James Clear. Some key parts:
I gather I have a long history of arguing my views, even when I’m not sure why I’m doing it. One time I was respectfully disagreeing with a coworker about something, and after a particularly good point I made, his tone went from sporting to angry and he said, “Damn, you are one argumentative person!” I told him he was wrong, but later wondered for a few seconds if I was indeed argumentative. No, he was the argumentative one. Otherwise he would have realized I was right.
[..] Today, it’s alarmingly easy to find yourself antler-locked with some remote, faceless person who’s trying to tell you that universal healthcare is a communist plot, while you’re waiting for your potato to finish microwaving. This facelessness turns up our impulse to argue even more. You may have noticed it’s a lot less pleasant to argue with someone when you can see their eyes.
[..] A different viewpoint, no matter how egregious it seems, is no emergency. Civilization survived for over 10,000 years before you and I got here with our snarky corrections and condescending rebuttals, and we didn’t exactly make a huge difference when we did arrive. It turns out we don’t have to try to stop people from thinking what we don’t want them to think, and that our energy is probably better spent elsewhere.
Read more: The Art of Letting Others Be Right (James Clear)
Filing under “productivity” for focusing on the important and the positive. :)
Photo caption: Mazinger Z is an enormous super robot, constructed with a fictitious metal called Super-Alloy Z (超合金Z Chōgokin Zetto), which is forged from a new element (Japanium) mined from a reservoir found only in the sediment of Mt. Fuji, in Japan. The mecha was built by Professor Juzo Kabuto as a secret weapon against the forces of evil, represented in the series by the Mechanical Beasts of Dr. Hell. A 7 metres statue was built in a suburb called “Mas del Plata” in Tarragona (Catalonia, Spain) at the end of the seventies, to be the entrance for the suburb, but the suburb was never completed and the statue remains there. Photo taken in February 2014. Copyright Markos Giannopoulos
Also published on Medium.
Tags: Communication, Productivity, psychology
