simplicity

Practice 16

Disagreements Are Not Zero-Sum Games

One of the problems of our times is that people are convinced that the only way they can win is for someone else to lose. Couple that with the fact that many people care more about winning than about the actual longer-term outcome, and you end up with a dysfunctional and noisy world.

A simple difference of opinion can end up as a confrontation. Some people like that, and others walk away. Neither side actually wins in that situation.

Idea 38

No one wins a zero-sum argument

An alternative approach is to realize that things are rarely black and white. No one is likely to be 100 percent right about anything. The trick is to accept this and to make what would otherwise have been an argument into something ...