What is an argument? In the Argument Clinic, a sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, an absurdist comedy series, a man pays for a five-minute argument. The customer goes to a room where a man behind a desk hurls abuse at him. The customer interrupts saying he paid for a five-minute argument, and this is not… Continue reading The art of persuasion 2: How to argue
psychology
Distraction and concentration
Concentration is at a premium in an increasingly distracted world. And this is why writing a book is so difficult for busy professionals. Writing a book requires long periods of distraction-free thinking-time, focus, and solitude. Author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, termed Flow as a state of hyper-concentration where we lose all sense of time. We become what we do. Focus… Continue reading Distraction and concentration
After losing an argument
I was browsing in a New York bookstore when I overheard a man ask for a book on how to win an argument. The two young women behind the counter giggled. I wondered if they knew about Demosthenes. Persuasion is a serious subject, and this bookstore customer wasn’t just a victim, he was doing something about his… Continue reading After losing an argument
Is slowing down bad?
You’d think promoting counter-urgency in business would be as popular as a middle-of-the-night-car-alarm-wake-up-call. Do a news search on “slow and business” and you get nothing but misery, pain, and frustration. Don’t we associate slow with failure, inefficiency; and perhaps worse — laziness? Speed worship We love speed. We have speed dating, speed networking, and fast… Continue reading Is slowing down bad?