debating & truth & contrarian ideas
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“Debate is great for sharpening the mind, but I worry that really skilled debaters might internalize the idea that the point of discussion and debate is victory, rather than truth. In debate, if you encounter a compelling counterargument, you just try to find a way around it.
But you should argue for truth, not for victory.
Really good debaters run the risk of ignoring valid counterarguments.”
———
professor Robert George: constitutional-law professor
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falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus
<false in one, false in all>
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I am a self-proclaimed contrarian and … well … contrarians end up debating … a lot. Let me be clear. If you suck at debating, you will be a sucky contrarian.
If you cannot debate, you simply are an opinionated person with a non-mainstream point of view sitting angry in some office or at some desk thinking everyone is just not smart enough, and as smart as you, because they just can’t see what you see.
That said. I have never had a desire to be angry nor staring at my own non-mainstream point of views piling up on my desk unused.
Next.
I am a self-proclaimed contrarian and … well … contrarians use truth … a lot.
Let me be clear. If you suck at telling the truth, clearly & concisely & unequivocally, you will be a sucky contrarian. Truth is at the core of being a successful contrarian. Contrarians, simply by offering a contrary thought, find themselves constantly on the defensive defending the thought. This happens even if you go on the offensive. This happens because contrary ideas & thoughts feel a little less comfortable, less familiar and more risky therefore people will inherently want to pick it apart. There is where ‘false’ haunts a contrarian. One falsehood is not just one falsehood. One falsehood implies others are there only yet to be found. If you cannot be an unequivocal truth teller you are simply a peddler of possibilities and, well, true contrarians thrive on making possibilities realities.
I have never had a desire to be angry nor staring at my own non-mainstream hopeful possibilities piling up on my desk unused.
All that said. When I saw the quote I opened with I had to sit back a little and think — think about how, as a contrarian, debate is used or not used.
Many contrarians focus on what I would call ‘the bookends’ — what their idea/thinking is and the ultimate outcomes — and judge themselves on that <and far too often dismiss counter thinking offered that changes the contrary thought>.
It is quite possible we contrarians <as well as many other people> should focus on ‘how they play the game’ or how they debate, because I frankly don’t give a shit what you preach nor whether you eventually benefit from what you preach as long as what you preach is grounded in integrity & fair play & truth, what you actually do and how you behave is grounded in integrity & fair play & truth and what you preach isn’t just preaching but rather a thought which inspires additional thinking <which means the original thought will most likely look pretty different at the outcome than it did at the onset>.
If you do it right, if you debate it right, then you, and the idea itself, will benefit in that if the idea & thinking gets adopted in some form or fashion you will have done so as an outcome of what you preached, what you debated and how you behaved during the debate.
That seems like a good thing.
But here is where the opening quote really made me think — contrarianism is like a drug. When you have a contrarian idea and it is actually a good idea <note: not all contrarians can tell if their idea is actually a good idea when being contrary> you can get caught up in the debate. You can start getting what I sometimes call “horizon blindness.” Horizon blindness is when you are so focused on the end destination and getting to the end destination you treat almost anything said, and any objection, as simply an obstacle to getting to the horizon … possibly ignoring any of the value being offered within the debate.
Even the best contrarians can get horizon blindness. Suffice it to say the best contrarians can be aware of what is at exactly the same time as where they want to be. iI permits some ‘cooperative arguments’ which <a> help build a better idea at the conclusion and <b> some ownership within all involved at the conclusion.
Anyway.
Here is what I think about being a great contrarian <maybe this is my wish list of what I could be>.
- Scrupulously fair.
Contrarians have to walk a fine line. They rarely are flippant with a contrarian idea therefore can be dogged in its defense. Yet, they must be fair to the idea, the beauty of thinking itself and what others think & say.
In fact, you have to almost relentlessly be fair to everything else around you … scrupulously fair as a matter of fact.
- Not domineering with beliefs.
This is a fine line to a contrarian. Frankly, any contrarian idea cannot step lightly into the fray. If it does, it gets suffocated by the familiar, the status quo & the easier path. But the key word in what I suggested is “beliefs.” Any contrarian idea is constructed with a number of beliefs. The truth is that all beliefs reserve the right to not only be challenged but also changed. Therefore, dominating with a belief, in the contrarian world, is just asking for trouble, in addition, it is the wrong thing to do if you truly want the best idea at the end.
- Cooperative argumentative dialogue.
The Socratic method <Socratic debate is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions>. Every truly good contrarian I have ever met has been a master at the ongoing cooperative argument. They have been adaptive in debate, flexible in the flow and adept at finding seemingly irrelevant factoids and making them relevant at the appropriate moment.
- Thinking tutor.
I want to be careful here because this is not to suggest contrarians are better thinkers or smarter thinkers and that they, and only they, can be the professors of thinking. What I am suggesting is that contrarians, in general, do think differently and they see things slightly differently. This means when you do it right, when you debate well & fairly & cooperatively, other people seem to walk away thinking about things in a slightly different way.
- Relentless truth teller
One lie, one half truth, one ‘truthful hyperbole, and the whole house of cards tumbles down. Great contrarians are great pivoters away from what they do not know. what I mean is that instead of offering a ‘lie’ <falsehood> when faced with not knowing something they typically place an “I don’t know” on the table 
and pivot to a “but here is what I do know” and place a truth on the table where the “I don’t know” used to be. Key to what I just shared is a slavish attachment to truth … even at the expense of an “I don’t know.” contrarians realize the game being played is chess and you will sacrifice a piece rather than imperil the entire board.
That’s it. When I saw the quote I opened with I loved the nuance in the description of debate and made me think that maybe we, in business, misuse the concept. We may really debate in business … and maybe we shouldn’t be debating. Maybe we should be arguing for truth, not for victory.
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and not lifetimes, measurement of failure, measuring generational attitudes, measuring generational behavior, measuring global education, measuring life, Meet or exceed expectations, meeting the challenges of concentration, message is worth listening to, messages and truth, messaging, Mind boggling because there are actuarial models, miss the simplicity in life, missing an opportunity, mistakes, mistakes shape expectations as much as successes do, mitigating conflict, mixed between business and Life, moments, moments are like a balance sheet, moments of passion, moral compass and doing the right thing, moral fiber, more and more we’ve come to expect less and less of each other, more hopeful than reality suggests, Most companies aren't seeking clones, most life coaches are simply snake oil salesmen, most people cannot recognize simple solutions, most people don’t really think about shit, Most people really don’t change that much, most significant declines in loyalty were primarily due to, most things in life are not black or white, most truth tellers are doing their best, motivated by a desire to achieve, motivating consumers, motivation, move forward in Life, movement slows time, mr. magorium wisdom, much easier to be somebody else, musician William Fitzsimmons, must have faith in each other, mutual respect in relationships, my most complex on simplicity, nasty habit of reflecting the reality, nation that was proud of hard work, NEED them to shape, need to sustain esteem, net enabled education, never compare your inside, never dwelled on the imperfections Life dealt her, never expected it to do anything special for me, never like to waste time under normal circumstances, never talked about how hard she worked, next batch of world changers to the world, next generation of thinkers, next moment is even easier to not do the right thing, no accepted truth tellers, no clue what to expect, no formulas nor are there any checklists, no longer just judged against other products and services, No matter how cynical you are, no one actually tells you that you are a joke, no one believes in simplicity anymore, no one else will love you, no one says you failed any more, no one wants to trust chaos, no substitute for judgment, no such thing as global idea, Nobody is right and nobody is wrong, nobody’s life is perfect, nomenclature of enlightening, not a quantity of words person, not a recipe for educated leadership, not a single sound at the end of my performances, not all contrarians apply their contrianism, not all contrarians are the same, not all customers are created equal, not being ignored, not driven by stupidity, not even mean judging yourself through society's eyes, not everyone can give good advice, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual, not for victory, not going to censor myself to comfort your ignorance, not invest a lot of energy thinking about shit, not just follow in our footsteps, not many good feelings get tied to this phrase, not meeting an objective is not failure, not more valuable because complicated, not motivated to reach for unattainable shit, not only expect people to be like us, not only look at the world, not only the world a little differently, not superlative buzzword lingo, not the result of ignorant people, not the result of work by ignorant people, Not the sadness, nothing is Indispensable, nothing is original, numbers are facts, numbers are facts crap, numbers are facts nonsense, numbers are not accountable, numbers can play a role, numbers have a role, numbers show possibilities, numbers will confess anything, obligation to do, obligation to do the right thing, odds of us making as many mistakes as we do now would decrease, of paramount importance in education, older generations are getting more online savvy, on the tip of my tongue, once and for all who you are, once doubt enters it takes on huge proportions, one foot in history one foot in future, one mistake away, one of the smartest simplest things I have ever written, one word of truth, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot, ongoing search for the right words, online and offline contrarian, only few find the way, only way to not be ignored, ontinually teach crosscultural communication skills, ook inside rather than without type of guy, ope undergirds just about anything, opinionated fools, opportunity to realign reality, optomism versus pessimism, optomistically cynical, ordinary life with extraordinary responsibilities, ordinary people don’t think they are remarkable, organization not aligned, organizational behavior, organizational conformity, organizations, organizing chaos, original ideas, original ideas are typically nuances of existing, Our blindness to the difference between need and want is sometime stunning, our minds create, our people have turned to the Federal government and found it, our situation is not the result of ignorant people, our version of best version, Output being something we say, overcoming ignorance, own up to them, painfully visible, partial truths, path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest, path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests, pays a price in the current societal climate, pend more time wondering how you got to where, pendulum, People are inherent storytellers, People are rarely what we expect them to be, People aren’t always what you want them to be, people believe simplicity doesn’t have value, people confuse process and disciplined thinking, people get confused about simple, people have a story, people tend to be the people they were, people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of tell the truth, people who give best advice, people who give best advice have been through the most, people who like to take action, people with more wisdom. people who have experienced more, perfect balance of control and freedom, perfection is crap, perfection is the thief, perfectly lovely poem for an imperfectly lovely lady, performance, personal brand and branding, personal branding has to more to do, personal competitive analysis, personal creative destruction, personal perspective, personal thoughts, personality, perspective, perspective can help with the complex, Perspective is always good, phrase got stuck in my head, pick a way that feels comfortable for you, piece of truth you have pulled out, placed undue emphasis on academic theories, plainness with absence of showiness, pluralism, positioning yourself versus personal branding, positive attributes, possible to tell truth in a society of lies, posted on a-thousand-words.tumblr.com, power of words, powerful words, preciously I take that endeavor and responsibility, predictions, preoccupied with possibilities, preparing for the real world, presenting an idea, pretty high standard, pretty high standard for which the person, principles behind establishing a brand, prioritizing actions, prioritizing what is right or wrong, process is a means to an end, product benefit, product has to be good enough, productivity, progress has been part of the living history of America, project global generation, promoting ourselves, promoting ourselves to insure we are not ignored, protecting children, protecting children from evil, protecting from predators, provide less tangible value, providing perspective, psychologically healthy without social support, pure & simple marketing arrogance, pure abstraction rather than on mindfulness, purpose to learn, purposeful fragmentation, pursuing the way, purveyors of truth need to hunker down, put failing in perpsective, Quality is now based on what they are willing to pay, quality of being simple or uncombined, quality versus quantity online, question and investigate every single statement, questioning the unquestionable, quotations, quote made me think, quotes, randomness of life, rare to make complicated simple, rarely balance at that point, rarely build something without help, rather than a true celebration of difference, rather than truth, reach for the stars, real things you should have cared about, realistic and achievable, Really good debaters run the risk of ignoring valid counterarguments, rearranging existing pieces, reason for being, reason to believe, received specific direction, recognize it is not easy to tell the truth, recognizing your limitations is a challenge, redefined quality, regardless of how it is interpreted, reinforcing that someone made a good decision, relationships, Relentless truth teller, remnant-thoughts, research, resetting the expectations in your category, reshaping things in business, resilience, resiliency, resiliency and character, respect, respect for individual choice, respect the burden of leadership, responsibility, responsibility to children, restless consistency, Restoring that faith and that confidence, Restoring that faith and that confidence in trust, returned simply to the things, right but wrong, right is right, right words, ROI versus imagination, room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, safe, salvation by society, say it is happening when it isn’t, say something meaningful, Say something meaningful in an interesting way, say thanks and get a shrug, say that something is happening when it is, saying it is fine when it is not, saying the right words, saying the truth excruciatingly unpleasant, scared, scripted answers rather than on critical questions, seconds well used is a lifetime, secretly danced for groups of people to collect money, secrets to collect, see more clearly within the moment, see within the circumstances, see your own reality, seek every way possible to complicate our lives, seek happiness by committing on nothing less than doing your best, seek out events without fear, seek truth, seeking new experiences, seeking the way of truth, seemed beautifully imperfect, seems crazy in hindsight, self actualization, self determination, self doubt, self esteem seemed to wander into some dark places, self esteem through problem solving, self identity, self truth, self worth, semi truths & non truths, sense of being relatable, separate the truths, seriously looking for perspective, shades of gray, shaking the etch a sketch, shape our lives, shape ourselves, shape the minds and actions of the architects of my future, sharing experiences, sharpening the mind, she seemed to be already among us, shine a spotlight on your accomplishments, short term concentration capabilities, shortcomings leading to consequences, shortest business book ever written, should argue for truth, should argue for truth not for victory, should be a moral one, should tell the truths all the time, shows lack of intellectual depth, shut down contrarianism, significantly better at setting aside expectations, significantly more complex, simple, simple is hard, simple isn’t the least, simple solutions are often the best solutions, simplicity, simplicity has gone the way of the dodo, simplicity in life, simplicity is an acquired taste, simplicity of solution, simplicity seems too chaotic, simplicity takes remarkable effort, simplifying to make choices easier, simply about communicating truth, simply an incentive program, simply called perspective, sincerely relentless strength of character, single most important Life compass, sitting in your manager’s office handing them something, six impossible things before breakfast, skeptical with regard to whether, sketch is better than a long discourse, slight head nod to some ethical standard, slippery slope, slippery slope of despair, slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance, small gestures in trivial looking moments, small group of thoughtful people, small truths, smallest actions contribute, smart marketing, So much of modern life seems to be about more, so you can be better, social imbalance, social marketing, social revolutions, social unrest, social upheavals, society has falsely defined the, soft choices, some calculated risks on the wants, some degree of integrity, some experience worthy of note, some give and take, some people do not talk about themselves, some things you can control and some things you cannot control, somehow exuded humanness, something more important than fear, something to think about, something we hear, something we say, sometimes systems work that should not work, Sometimes they disappoint you, sometimes write shit with such deranged passion & intensity, somewhere above the least and significantly below the most, Somewhere along the way you find, sorting out the truth, sounds manipulative, soyoufailed.com, speak, speak after listening, speaking, speaking about yourself in the third person, speaking the truth for what it is, speaking to someone, specialist, spiral of loneliness and despair, springwise, squeezing yourself, stand for something within yourself, standing on the uncertainty pedestal, standing up every time we fall down, staring at my own non-mainstream hopeful possibilities, starting out in business, stay or go, Stay within yourself and your personality, steadfast in believing we SHOULD have expectations, steadfast unequivocal semi-truths, stealing expectations, stepping up, stewards of tomorrow’s world, stimulus reponse, stomach gets this incredibly empty feeling, stop and think, stories, stories we will never tell, stories you want to hear, story they never want to tell, straight lines, straight lines are rare in life, strategy, strength against adversity, strength of character, strength of character to make change, strength of self, stress of interviewing, stress that comes with unemployment and interviewing, stressful decisions, stretch your creativity, strip away the undoable and identify the doable, strong families, struggle between energy and indolence, struggle between vitality and decay, struggled receiving compliments, stubbornly challenge yesterday, students will use the knowledge and ideas, Study results have shown, Stuff I Like, stumble upon doing it right, stunning grace in the face of overwhelming life, subconscious influences behavior, Subject matter is simply the tool, success, success in business resides solely, Success is like reaching, sucks on so many levels, suggesting my contrarianism was stupid, surely our loss, swallowing nonsense, systems remain stagnant, take revenge on doubters, talking, teaching, teaching the next generation of kids, teens, tell me something about yourself, telling someone the truth, telling someone the truth bears the burden of, telling the truth, Telling the truth and constantly learning, tempting to start adopting others habits, tend to see them, that contrarianism is always stimulating, that i will be tomorrow, THAT may be a better version, That which is simple is invaluable, that which is simple is valuable, That’s too simple, the answers are within you, the best advice is priceless, the best refuse to get involved, the biggest challenge we face today, the bottom line for the rest of society, the builders of the new version of our Great Society, the fact many people do not really know what they want, the global generation, the Great Society is not a safe harbor, the great society which they can shape, the initial thought, the kind of education these people received, the likes of the lovely Audrey Hepburn again, the minute you start referring to yourself as a brand, the moments that words fail, the most powerful weapon in life is not a mission, the myth of original, the myth of the proprietary process, the notions of global responsibility, the numbers told me what to do, the objective that matters, the odd moment of beauty where time is not the same, the organizational crack, the output version, the painful truth, the power of friends, the prophecy causes its own fulfillment, the Pygmalion Effect, the result of actions and decisions by educated people, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others, The Secret is a bunch of tripe, the subconscious, the thing about being a truth teller, The truth is, the truth is complicated, the truth laid bare, the unimportant, the way one person treats another can, the wise who seek the questions, the word failure is tough love, the world always belongs to the next generation, the world bends everyone, the world is always changing, the younger generations who are unburdened by an era of mass production, there are excuses for not getting an education, there are things that are known, there is no formula for good choices, there's always a cost, they have destroyed an economy, they sometimes act like aliens, they turn out to be better, Things known and unknown, things that are known, think, think about being visible, thinking, thinking about shit, thinking and those words make me cringe, thinking impossible things, thinking is good, thinking too much, thinking you are invisible, this generation of Americans, this i am today, this is called perspective, this is the Creative Destruction theory, thomas jefferson, those who have only grown up with what they see on the internet, those who really know their shit, thought about being yourself, thoughtful and committed passion, thoughts, threaded with some conflict, thrive on dreams and possibilities, through someone else’s eyes, tie empowerment to burden of responsibility, time, time and choices, times of stress I have found simplicity, tips, to acquaint him with the resources of his mind, to be sure of you, to do or not to do, to explain something inexplicable, to slay a dragon you need to believe in dragons, to tell about something I only feel in my bones, today’s economy, told over and over again who I was supposed to be, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption, total impunity on behalf of something called corporate greed, tough being a teen, tough time for truth tellers, trade offs, transformational people, trapped by fear, Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is, trivial moments, trivial moments in bigger life, true challenge of this generation of Americans, true friend, true test of character, true to thineself, truly good within all, truly honest with ourselves, truly the digital natives, trust, trust was undermined, trusted sage advisors, truth, truth & contrarian ideas, truth and expectations, Truth does not reside on an uneven playing field, truth goggles, truth is an unpleasant business, truth is being challenged by a divisive society, truth is complicated, truth is rarely simple, truth is the truth, truth is told in the last moments, truth is what really happened, Truth itself is an emergent distinction, truth or lies, truth or nothing, truth sounds like a pistol shot, truth teller has, truth teller has twinges of angst, truth telling a pretty complex circumstances, truth to oneself, truth versus opinions, truth will set you free, truths that don't matter all that much, truths that matter, trying to preserve will lead to stagnation, tween strength, tweens, Twitter, twitter triumph of humanity, ultimately resides on the shoulders of these young people, unanimously maintain a conspiracy, unattainable shit, uncertainty is a bitch, uncertainty of nations, uncertainty takes on geometric proportions, unclear leader, uncomfortable enlightened thinking, underestimate the ingenuity of our inner fool, understanding the implications, understanding the implications of this knowledge, understanding what you do as an organization, unexpected innovation, unfocused leaders, unfortunately Life has a habit, unintended results, unlearning to learn, unless you love yourself, unlocking the story, unpleasant way of saying the truth, unquestionable, unrealistic expectations, unrealisticexpectations, unreasonable solutions, unsaid halo over everything else that comes after, unshakeable, untangling people, until we meet again, untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people, use your imagination, Usefulness, using the right words, utilizes whatever intelligence they have to the best of their ability, value of loyalty, value of the message itself as a vehicle, valued material acquisition above people, values systems, very child can find knowledge to enrich his mind, very easy to disregard what you see around you, vibrantly alive in repose, visible and ignored versus thinking you are invisible, vision, voices of a generation, voting, wacky wisdom, waiting or living, walk in our footsteps, walking beyond our own footsteps, want children to do better, want children to go beyond, wanting more can help us grow in many ways, was this not what you wanted, was this not what you wanted business version, was this not what you wanted personal version, waste time & energy flailing about seeking blame, wasted energy worrying, watching and learning, we all fail, we all have a little fool within us, we all have stories, we associate work with who we are, We do not teach them to aspire to be all they can, we don’t want them to be like us, we make a shitload of mistakes, we must face the truth, we overlook the ability of great friends, we see depends mainly on what we look for, we shape our lives, we should all listen a little more, we should not attempt to teach something without, we the people, wealth with purpose and life with meaning, What a fucked up world that would be, What bullshit, what do you do when you get what you want, what I know opinions, what is right and what is wrong, what is the alternative, what is the place of words, what looks like chaos, what makes, what she thought was right, what we are seeking explanations, what we have is not what we need, what we need is impossible to get, what we need to get us through, what we want is not what we need, what you do with your time, what you imagine, what you think you want, whatever it takes, whatever it takes to cross that dark bridge, whatever she had, when people do not listen, when truth is not truth, When we expect nothing from anyone, when you give them a chance, where truth resides, while ferociously independent, who I wish you were, why I think what I think, will not expound upon balance, willing to forfeit any sense of self, wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, with who I wish you were, within all of this imperfect perfectness, woefully inadequate data, wonder what the world looks like, won’t choose you solely on this, Word of mouth now travels the world in a flash, words, words are a responsibility, words equal intent, words reflecting experiences, words that become deeds, words worse than nothing unless they do something, work is often up to people, work nevertheless, worked hard to be, world a little differently, world looks like to someone else, worry about implementing a great idea versus protecting it, would have respected her, would look back on all the pleasures, wouldn’t impact the final conclusion in any meaningful way, wouldn’t really be a truth teller, wretched hollow in between need & want, write about, wrote in 1969 about the Pygmalion Effect, you are either competent or not, you are not a failure because you fail, you are what makes the world great, you can be smart about how you go about doing it, You can buy short term behavior, You cannot be uninteresting, you cannot dwell on every moment that slipped by, you cannot fake it or make it, you cannot love yourself, you fail, you have to be your own cheerleader, you have to earn loyalty, you have to work to get these stories, you imagine them to be, you make decisions that look, you may gain something, you need to make sure you, you need to make sure you haven’t become a joke, you shelve what is important, you will keep moving forward, you will learn how not to be a jerk, You would think, You would think in business, young people speaking, your accomplishments, your stomach gets this incredibly empty feeling
Written by Bruce