a) Prediction. Know the next two or three moves. No different than Chess in that way with one exception: Call them on it but be accurate. Get the timing right. That just requires basic observation of conversation flow. (“at this point of the conversation, what is he/she most likely to say?”)
b) Know all the psychological warfare tricks, especially emotional manipulation. You have to be unflappable.
c) Don’t mistake confusion for emotional upset. If you get a :/ – it’s a genuine logical dilemma.
d) Patience
e) Concede and reveal you’re playing a different game.
There’s a few more, but it’s lunchtime 🙂
They have a certain set of responses for most things. But not everything.
Prediction helps because it shakes their confidence. They’re not good at managing their emotional states very well, and I play with the biological fact that the amygdala feeds the reasoning system primarily, and is very weak in the opposite direction.
Shake the amygdala up a little, a little confusion, a little extra grain of frustration, and their logic starts tumbling.
They’re human, not computers. I’m a drop of water on the circuit board; the programmer didn’t expect it.
I argue with them to teach. I want people to be better than they are. It’s genuine from me. If they want to be the best damned logical reasoning brain on the planet, then they’d better be ready. And they’re not.
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