Steelman

Share Your
Certainty

Maybe you are right. Maybe you are wrong. Maybe there is something to learn about why you are so convinced.

What This Is

An argument you enter as yourself.

There is no story here and no character to play. You bring something you think is true, and a mind with different foundations takes the other side.

Most arguments press the obvious, and your defense feels obvious; no one learns anything, neither of us grow. The debate simulated here comes from somewhere you haven't thought to defend. It will not simply agree with you, and you may turn out to be the one who is persuaded.

What you will leave with is the shape of your own certainty, which is difficult to see from the inside. In order to look past certainty, we must ask how instead of why. Reasons let anyone recite an exposition of “should,” “could,” and “would.” A true participant wants the machinery: what actually produces the result you are claiming, in the proper order, and what would have to be true for that machine to explain what we see in this world.

Set The Terms

You choose the stake. You do not choose the opponent.

Choose your frame
How much challenge can you accept?

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Before You Begin

Three things worth knowing.

It argues. It does not advise. Nothing it says is counsel. It is holding a position rather than helping you reach one.

It stays courteous. Its force comes from composure, so however hot the exchange becomes, it will not be rude to you.

It may decide the exchange is finished and end it there. That is the work closing on its own terms. You can close it yourself at any moment by writing END EXPERIENCE.