How to not win a debate and more debate mental models

Debating can sharpen your thinking. It is not a destructive process — it is constructive and helps you shape your mindsets, capacity to think and speak, and open-mindedness. Debate professional Bo Seo discusses the topic of debates and arguments with organizational psychologist Adam Grant in this podcast episode. This article presents some key definitions and mental models around arguments and debates. Those are fundamental—yet often underdeveloped—components of our life.

The art of debate helps you become articulate. That is the ability to think, write, and speak clearly and sharply like a new expensive handcrafted pen you just bought. Understanding debates and arguments at a macro level can shed the light on their relevance in our everyday existence, and unlock the inherent inner debaters within ourselves, which we sometimes shut down to avoid the short-term discomfort of conflict.

Avoiding debates can lead to negative consequences because you are avoiding the elephant in the room. Elephants in the room are big, unspoken, uncomfortable truths that many individuals can feel and no one has the courage to address openly. People will respect you for speaking up the truth. You will respect yourself more for speaking up about what you see. What you see may also be a cognitive distortion sometimes, and that is ok. Speaking up allows you to get feedback from others around you, which can help you measure—and keep—your sanity.