Well, let me explain to you one thing: any post you see with the tag "essay" is written in 25-40 minutes; after this time period, I allow myself only minor edits. It is a self-imposed limitation, but a necessary one; I am a terribly slow writer, and fumble around with the English language often. One of the goals of this blog is to keep my essay writing sharp for future use. So congratulations, you are all guinea pigs. That being said, I encourage you to comment; not just to help me hone my writing, but also to serve another purpose.
"Nerds", in lieu of a better word, may at times seem overly harsh towards one another - especially those of us who have grown up with the polarizing influence of the internet, there seems to be no end to our arguments. This is neither a sign of harshness nor disrespect. We do not argue to be right, we argue for the sake of arguing, whether we notice it or not.
It has been said that it is only when a person takes a stand that their morals become evident; this is no less true for argument. When taking sides, the side we are defending becomes plainly evident to us. When we attempt to assert our opinions, we learn what our opinions truly are, exploring them in ways we have not before, and exposing them to perspectives we have not seen them from before, perspectives which we assimilate.
This is a very personal process, and is hard to relate with salient examples; but think of every time you have argued with a more experienced person, and discovered a flaw in your understanding - I'm looking at you, every single high school physics student ever. Or think of every time you have argued with a less experienced person, and had to strengthen and improve your knowledge in order to explain things clearly - try explaining the high school experience to a younger peer, and you find yourself consolidating your knowledge and truly noting what is important and what is not.
Experienced people understand this, and use it to their advantage; but the key is humility. To quote politics, "don't get mad, don't get even, get ahead". Do not argue to try and convince the other person of the rightness of your position - rarely, if ever, does this happen. If you attempt this in every argument you have, then you will find that nobody is better off for it. Argue to bring your point across, and see your opponent's point. Argue to argue, and if you keep your head down, you might just discover something unexpected.
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