About Conversations

After some long conversation with a very good friend about a difficult topic where our opinions (seemed to) differ, I wrote down a few things to remember:

• very important is to feel the gap between the participants in their respective context of the used language, and the level of talking
• I guess this mostly emphasizes the good listening
• the tempo of the conversation obviously needs to adjust to this gap and the person
• agree on the used terms early, as otherwise this can lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration and 'clean-up' work later
• if the other does not feel comfortably with your terms, find and use a different term acceptable for all
• if the other is a reasonable person you might know for a long time, and he does not agree with your stuff: consider that you are wrong! And argue about it. And reconsider your point.
• if the other is not a reasonable person, keep the discussion short ...
• keep temper and listen