Don’t Straw Man Fellow Arguers, Steel Man Them Instead
Be careful with this one. I’ve been in arguments where in attempting to steel-man their position only to discover that they don’t agree with what I thought was the steel man.
Maybe you failed to make your steel man a proper superset (in probability space) of their original argument? If they still disagree, then they have a problem.
From an argument productivity perspective, generating strong arguments, regardless of what position they are for, can be helpful for improving the productivity of your argument.
In other words, just because an argument wasn’t what another arguer was trying to communicate doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.
Be careful with this one. I’ve been in arguments where in attempting to steel-man their position only to discover that they don’t agree with what I thought was the steel man.
Maybe you failed to make your steel man a proper superset (in probability space) of their original argument? If they still disagree, then they have a problem.
From an argument productivity perspective, generating strong arguments, regardless of what position they are for, can be helpful for improving the productivity of your argument.
In other words, just because an argument wasn’t what another arguer was trying to communicate doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.