[goodlinks]

Just listen and try to steel man what they are saying as best you can before you start to consider how it might be wrong.

Try to get onto the path of thought that led them there, but let the questions that arise naturally for you hold off as long as you can.

To be clear this is like a policy, you will fail at it but it reminds you of the prinicals that you believe in.

I learn a lot doing this in more ways than i could explain in a book, never mind a comment.

[goodlinks]

doesnt matter how wrong or personally based the attack/criticism is. The more extreme the situation the more important it is to keep to the plan.

the lessons learned will cover all of existance as you will learn more about how people model the world, problems and solutions beyond the specifics of the problem at hand.

*if doing this drains you make a change of environment (e.g. job), however i find that the discussions you have like this change other peoples thinking more effectively, so its also how you sew the seeds of cultural change.