Honestly the only thing I could really understand in chapter
3 of Thank You for Arguing was the fact that if you’re trying to persuade
someone to get your way in a decision the both of you are making is – start out
with something extreme and then slowly dial down the choices. I really thought
that was a really smart trick that I had never heard before, because if you
threw different things out onto the table of things you and another person are
deciding on then it will just be easier for the other person to toss your ideas
in the trash without really any thought. However, if you threw out some
ridiculous decision that would make them think “What the hell?” then you’ve
hooked them – possibly on the road to agreeing with another idea you throw out
there that’s dialed down a bit more. Then they will think that’s MUCH better
than the previous idea you’ve had, and they probably won’t want to give you
more time to think up another ridiculous idea.
That’s honestly all what I took away from chapter 3. Literally
my mind can only understand so much ha-ha. Sorry. But I guess that’s better
than nothing.
On another note, I feel like blaming the other party in your
argument is a bit counter-productive isn’t it? I think that putting the direct
blame towards one person would make things escalate too quickly and tempers
would flare. I don’t think anything would get accomplished in that aspect of
things. When in an argument, one must
keep a level head and each argumentative statement needs to be formed and said
correctly – one wrong move and it could destroy the levelheaded argument you
have made.
(I literally have no idea if any of this is correct. Probably
not honestly.)
Just be confident in yourself! You mentioned a really cool way of arguing and made it make complete sense to me.( I didn’t read chapter 3 yet) I feel like you probably use this form of arguing without realizing it. I do it with my sisters all the time. If I need picked up I just say a really late time. We usually argue about it and I have to get picked up a little earlier, but it is still better than what my sister probably had in mind.
ReplyDeleteI feel that you gathered more from that chapter than you think. You talk about the technique by throwing out a ridiculous, "What the hell?", offer to get them hooked and then work your way down from there. I have used this personally at my last job as a camp counselor. If a kid was not cooperating I would offer him to do something way out there. But the kid would come back with a counter offer that is basically what I wanted in the first place. You wrote over a good topic, don't doubt yourself!
ReplyDeleteI understand the reasoning behind this but if you're talking about arguing versus persuading then I think this is more persuasion. You are using a mind technique to get what you want therefore persuading your audience to do what you wanted in the first place. If we were to look at an argument it would be more of someone trying to convince you to see from their point of view. Argument usually has a form of persuasion in it but persuasion is not always an argument.
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