Our impulse to seek out agreement is stifling us, says world debate champion Bo Seo.
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The ability to reach agreement with other people is a crucial skill, not only in your career and everyday life, but also in your close relationships. However, that doesn’t mean there’s no place for disagreement.
Many people tend to shy away from disagreements. After all, we often see media images of disagreements going out of control, whether it’s clashes between rival political parties or people feuding on social media. But there is a way to have enlightening and productive disagreements.
That’s one of the main takeaways from this Big Think interview with Bo Seo, an author, journalist, and two-time world champion debater. To Seo, a world where everyone agrees all the time would not only be worse off intellectually, it’d be boring.
Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/devils-advocate/agreement-is-overrated/
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About Bo Seo:
Bo Seo is a two-time world champion debater and a former coach of the Australian national debating team and the Harvard College Debating Union. One of the most recognized figures in the global debate community, he has won both the World Schools Debating Championship and the World Universities Debating Championship. Bo has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, and many other publications. He has worked as a national reporter for the Australian Financial Review and has been a regular panelist on the prime time Australian debate program, The Drum. Bo graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and received a master’s degree in public policy from Tsinghua University. He is currently a student at Harvard Law School.
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Read more of our stories on debating:
Five ways to tell if someone is an expert, or just confident
► https://bigthink.com/smart-skills/expert/
Which philosopher had the strongest arguments?
► https://bigthink.com/thinking/david-hume/
Why changing your mind is a feature of evolution, not a bug
► https://bigthink.com/thinking/how-minds-change-book/
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