Arguing
Arguing is a temptation for many of us. It is a type of intellectual
play, and it is a good way to improve your mind in one way: its
ability to win arguments. What is arguing not good for? Contrary
to what many think, it is not very good for developing more effective
thinking.
Arguing unnecessarily, even when it is just a friendly debate,
can begin to limit your thinking. When you defend a position
too vigorously, and you want to "win" an argument,
you invest your ego into it. Any thoughts of other alternatives
are then felt as personal attacks, and so are avoided - even
if only on an unconscious level. In other words, argue too much
and you cannot easily easy accept and use new information.
When I was ten years old, me and my classmates were taught
how to "analyze" a product. In the case of my group,
we were assigned a brand of toilet paper. The ideas was to compare
it with others, and explain our findings. Of course this was
supposed to teach us to analyze and reason. However, since it
was a competitive project, each team was soon defending their
assigned product, so it mostly taught us to rationalize why our
brand was best.
Now, in doing our work and preparing our report, we came to
believe our own "reasoning". This little group of ten-year-olds
suddenly had an opinion about toilet paper, and we really believed
that we had somehow been assigned the "best" brand.
Isn't this what happens when you defend a position? You become
attached to it, and you put blinders on to prevent other possibilities
from bothering you.
Your mind is in a rut, which you dig deeper with each argument.
Of course, debate can be a valuable thing, but when ego takes
over, the mind closes a little. This is not a recipe for better
thinking and decision making.
What can you do about this problem? There are times when you
might need to argue, but you can at least balance your thinking.
You can try arguing from the other side too, at least in your
mind. Try to see the issue from several perspectives if you can.
You may not change your opinion, but that you will be able
to if the facts say you should. This is more effective thinking.
When I look back on that school lesson, I think we should have
been instructed to do a second presentation, one where we point
out all the problems with our product. Then we might have learned
about the unreliability of thinking when ego starts arguing.
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