In Michael’s very kind link to our Rands in Repose retrospective, he mentioned the following:
He dropped by for lunch at Apple during which we debated productivity software. I remember disagreeing with him about something fundamental and he held his ground, we agreed to disagree. During this lively disagreement, I decided that Alex was my people.
My friend Dave linked to the post with the following:
Alex and I end nearly every conversation together with an agreement to disagree, and I count him as a close friend.
I do have opinions. 🙂
Here’s the thing, thoughtful opinions are what make people interesting.
Lively and engaged debate is how I test my opinions and expand my view of a particular issue. While it’s unusual for me to completely walk back something during a discussion, it’s extremely common for bits of the discussion to germinate over a few days/weeks and fundamentally change or expand my point of view.
I thoroughly enjoy talking with Michael and Dave, for this very reason. I enjoy their perspective and their willingness to expand mine.
@alexkingorg do you know your MBTI? I’d guess -NTP
@kikodoran Yep, IIRC depending on when I took the test I’ve been I/E and P/J
@alexkingorg pretty common amongst developers -NT- Makes people think we are disagreeing even when we are just analyzing out loud.
Awesome, Alex. Always willing to debate and disagree… and recommend Crowd Favorite to everyone, of course!
One of the most excellent things about being a person with lots of thoughtful opinions is that it tends to make you feel more investment in the process that lead to an opinion than in the opinion itself – which means that being shown to be wrong isn’t a failure on your part, but a success on the part of everyone involved in the discussion.
(That’s less about being an interesting person and more about being an awesome person, though.)
That’s an excellent way of looking at this. +1
“Thoughtful opinions are what make people interesting.” @alexkingorg http://t.co/9BP0WjcJ7a
“thoughtful opinions are what make people interesting.” @alexkingorg on Disagreeing http://t.co/uvdaL8RX4V