Irritation of Dangling Threads

[jamesq]

I got into a discussion/argument with wild_wanderer's roommate D the other night. It's still bugging me. Arguments where I can't get my point across always bother me - it always seems like a personal failure to be clear enough. Obviously if I'm clear enough, then they should understand the point right?

Of course that's not always the case. There's been times when I've made my point with utter clarity and the other party still hasn't "gotten it" (and of course, there's been times when I've simply been wrong). I generally give them two attempts and then I walk away (I didn't always do this, Google my name and you'll find some truly quixotic attempts of mine back in University to convince people that the death penalty is a bad idea). The urge to keep trying remains though.

In the specific case of my argument with D, I think we were simply arguing at cross-purposes and neither of us was making our point well enough. D seems like a reasonably smart fellow so I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. The problem is, looking back on the conversation, I'm still not sure exactly what D's point was. I'd repeat back what he said, but I'm afraid I'd cock it up and misrepresent him.

I was going to list my own arguments, but that's not entirely fair either, since it makes this post less about "why not being clear bothers me" and more about "I'm going to get the last word in, ha ha."

Comments

[mallt.livejournal.com]

ok... that title conjured up a totally different meaning for me.

[oblivions.livejournal.com]

Intensely amused by this.

Been there, know the feeling. Your experience is not unique.

D is a good man but..

[wild-wanderer.livejournal.com]

He can be interesting to try to have a conversation with at times.

Sometimes the only way to get him to hear what you are saying is to say something fairly off topic then come back on topic and he'll hear it better