grokdueling

[Carmen Clark]

Quoted from the article, "Grokdueling," by Ed MacNeal at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6405/is_2_56/ai_n28737506/?tag=content;col1


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   The term "grok" came my way long after I first resorted to what I  
now call "grokdueling." Somehow I'd become aware that I often  
understood the arguments of others better than they understood mine.  
 From that I developed a strategy for dealing with friends who argued  
with me that usually worked out as follows. (6)

1. I'd suggest we each try to state the other's position to the  
other's satisfaction. I'd offer to go first or second, whichever my  
friend preferred. They always wanted me to go first. If at a party,  
say a class reunion, a few people would drift over to witness a new  
kind of spectacle.

2. I'd then state my friend's position in my own words with examples  
and feeling, trying to make a better case for it than I'd been given.  
(I found I could do this, because I'd listened earlier and tried to  
understand what my friend said.) A few more people would now join the  
onlookers.

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