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Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach | Bo Seo

February 18, 2023 by Admin

Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach, Bo Seo.

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Up next, Harvard negotiator explains how to argue ► https://youtu.be/IDj1OBG5Tpw

Bo Seo, an author and two-time world debate champion, believes our public conversations are in crisis. To Seo, our arguing skills have collectively atrophied over recent decades, resulting in bad arguments that have caused many people to lose faith in the idea that productive disagreements are even possible.

That’s why Seo suggests a framework called RISA — which stands for “Real, Important, Specific, and Aligned” — to help people pick their fights more wisely and to give conversations the best possible chance of success. RISA helps individuals find a better way to disagree.

Seo believes that by making a contract with the other party and reminding them of the rules, conversations can be productive, and disagreements can lead to progress.

0:00 Why you’re losing your arguments
1:11 The making of a world champion
2:17 Intelligence vs wisdom
3:04 The RISA framework
4:29 Applying the RISA framework
6:23 Picking a good fight
7:46 Weak vs. strong arguments
9:21 Side-switch exercises

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/debate-framework

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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 the art of arguments:
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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How dirty debaters win against better opponents | Bo Seo

January 11, 2023 by Admin

How to defeat debaters who deal in distractions, according to two-time world debate champion Bo Seo.

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Up next, Harvard negotiator explains how to argue ► https://youtu.be/IDj1OBG5Tpw

Bo Seo, a two-time world debate champion, watched the 2016 presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and was disappointed by the unedifying spectacle that the debates had become.

Seo saw the potential for the format of debate to be exploited and degraded, and he believes that the capacity to disagree well or poorly is within all of us.

Seo identified four common types of bad arguers: the dodger, who changes the topic; the twister, who misrepresents the point being made; the wrangler, who is never satisfied and never offers an alternative; and the liar, who makes false or misleading statements. To Seo, these negative impulses must be managed in order to guide arguments towards being more productive and positive.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/four-toxic-debaters

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Is debate good for America? | Bo Seo

December 17, 2022 by Admin

Our impulse to seek out agreement is stifling us, says world debate champion Bo Seo.

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Up next, Harvard negotiator explains how to argue ► https://youtu.be/IDj1OBG5Tpw

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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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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Debate world champion explains how to argue | Bo Seo

November 28, 2022 by Admin

Bo Seo, Harvard’s former debate coach, explains a good argument.

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Up next, Harvard negotiator explains how to argue ► https://youtu.be/IDj1OBG5Tpw

If our ancestors could see modern society, odds are they would be impressed with our technology and horrified with how we use it — particularly when it comes to debate.

Debate is crucial to a healthy society. After all, having productive debates is how people have learned, resolved conflicts, and generated new solutions for thousands of years. In Ancient Greece, it was even considered a kind of civic duty to be able to persuasively argue your point about the various issues of the day.

There are plenty of skilled rhetoricians around today. But as two-time world debate champion Bo Seo told Big Think, it has become rare to see thoughtful, productive, and smart debates broadcast on a large scale to the general public. We more often encounter short video clips or tweets featuring people whose main goal is to “win” the argument instead of trying to understand and refute the opposing side’s ideas in good faith.

A major part of the problem is that we have outsourced our debates to avatars we see in media: politicians, pundits, and celebrities.

So, can we develop better models of disagreement to help us become better debaters? Seo thinks the answer is yes, and that the process starts with polishing our skills offline.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/great-question/how-to-have-good-debates

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Social media addiction – how it changes your brain | Luke Burgis | Big Think

November 29, 2021 by Admin

Social media addiction – how it changes your brain, with Luke Burgis
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Up next ►► How social media changes identity, personality, memory | Parker Posey | Big Think https://youtu.be/VHEfCSHZfs8

By definition, mimetic desire means that we’re adopting another person’s desire as our own, usually without even realizing that we’re doing it. Social media has given us millions of mimetic models that we now have to contend with. Some people have gone from having 10 mimetic models to now having thousands, and we haven’t quite come to grips as a culture with what that means for our mental and emotional health.

All desire comes from us feeling like we lack something, which can bring us into a dangerous, vicious habit because there will always be another model to find. We have to choose our models wisely whether they are famous influencers across the globe or our closest friends. We also have to know when the model is inflaming us with the desire for something that’s going to bring real fulfillment or whether it’s going to bring a dopamine hit or allow us to fantasize about a life that we’ll probably never have.

All desires are modeled for us 24 hours a day, billions of them, and we need to understand the mimetic landscape of social media, or else we’ll become completely controlled by it.

Read the video transcript: https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/social-media-addiction/

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About Luke Burgis:
Luke Burgis is a veteran entrepreneur and author. He’s the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC, and the founder of Fourth Wall Ventures, an incubator that invests in people, art, and technology that contribute to a healthy human ecology. Luke studied business at NYU Stern before doing graduate work in philosophy and earning an S.T.B. in Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He’s the author of the book Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, which popularized the work of cultural anthropologist René Girard. He lives with his wife, Claire, in the DC area.

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Read more of our stories on social media addiction:
Profile of a social media addict: Do you fit the description?
►►https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/profile-of-a-social-media-addict-do-you-fit-the-description/
Psychology, Social Media Addiction, and the Element of Surprise
►►https://bigthink.com/videos/tim-wu-on-the-psychology-behind-email-addiction/
Tech hack: These 4 steps will make your phone less distracting
►► https://bigthink.com/smart-skills/phone-distraction/

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