‘It’s very good,’ said Vimes, ignoring this. ‘But I need to know more. I need to know the names. I think you know the names. Where did they meet? Things like that. I need to know them,’ ‘Some things are a mystery to me,’ said William. ‘You’ve got more than enough evidence to release Lord Vetinari,’ ‘I want to know more,’ ‘Not from me,’ ‘Come on, Mr de Worde. We’re on the same side here!’ ‘No. We’re just on two different sides that happen to be side by side,’ “The Truth” by Terry Pratchett I love the open marketplace of ideas, of being able to discuss different issues. Unfortunately, good discussions are hard to find. Whether it’s power, personal or otherwise, emotions, or whatever, something always seems to interfere. I have written about a few features of good discussions, e.g., prerequisites, or the hierarchy of agreement. But given that I recently wrote a German blog posting about differences in discussions I’d like to focus on them here. On the surface, differences make a discussion. If people did not have differences, they would feel no need to discuss. You couldn’t even discuss to ‘get that bastard on the other side’, because [...]
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