On saying "no" - Over 20 years ago I did a sales training program. It had a lot of stuff to it, but the most important concept is to never, ever act like a salesman. Everyone has a negative perception of salespeople, so your job is to be the exact opposite.
Anyway, one of the key tenets of their approach was to give the prospect permission to say no. Most people absolutely hate rejecting other people. And with salespeople, they also fear that you'll apply a lot of pressure and try to get them to change their minds. So they ghost you instead.
Dunno if this applies well to writing for the NYT, but since taking that course I've found that giving permission to say no up front to be stress-reducing for everyone involved.
Calling someone "Hitler" (or just the possibility of being called a "nazi") can incentivize someone to accept your point (or at least stop resisting your arguments) for fear of being considered an Evil Person.
Shouting can be another way to incentivize your interlocutor to accept what you're saying or stop resisting what you're saying, again from fear of provoking aggression.
"Persuading" is about making the other person align with me; steering another agent's behavior in way that doesn't conflict with me. It is not (necessarily) required that this "alignment" is executed in an epistemically sound and warranted fashion. To persuade others, we use reasons, logic, and, yes, "dirty tactics". The confusion that "arguing is not about persuasion" arises from a tacit and faulty assumption that "persuasion" proceeds only via epistemic rationality.
Dear Professor, As always, it's a pleasure to read your article! Merry Christmas 🌲☃️and Happy New Year! My hope is that unjust war in Ukraine and in Gaza will end in 2025 and evil is destroyed!🙏
On saying "no" - Over 20 years ago I did a sales training program. It had a lot of stuff to it, but the most important concept is to never, ever act like a salesman. Everyone has a negative perception of salespeople, so your job is to be the exact opposite.
Anyway, one of the key tenets of their approach was to give the prospect permission to say no. Most people absolutely hate rejecting other people. And with salespeople, they also fear that you'll apply a lot of pressure and try to get them to change their minds. So they ghost you instead.
Dunno if this applies well to writing for the NYT, but since taking that course I've found that giving permission to say no up front to be stress-reducing for everyone involved.
Here's a bog post I wrote about it in 2003: https://derekscruggs.com/2003/11/04/up-front-contracts/
Why does Bob agree to debate you, when you crush him so brutally?
And is he really so angry / bitter / prickly? I love him as a writer, but for someone who wrote "Why Buddhism Is True"....
"I find these points convincing."
I do not.
Calling someone "Hitler" (or just the possibility of being called a "nazi") can incentivize someone to accept your point (or at least stop resisting your arguments) for fear of being considered an Evil Person.
Shouting can be another way to incentivize your interlocutor to accept what you're saying or stop resisting what you're saying, again from fear of provoking aggression.
"Persuading" is about making the other person align with me; steering another agent's behavior in way that doesn't conflict with me. It is not (necessarily) required that this "alignment" is executed in an epistemically sound and warranted fashion. To persuade others, we use reasons, logic, and, yes, "dirty tactics". The confusion that "arguing is not about persuasion" arises from a tacit and faulty assumption that "persuasion" proceeds only via epistemic rationality.
Dear Professor, As always, it's a pleasure to read your article! Merry Christmas 🌲☃️and Happy New Year! My hope is that unjust war in Ukraine and in Gaza will end in 2025 and evil is destroyed!🙏
Happy Christmas 🎄!