Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Daniel Rosenberg asks I never did debate in school. Now that I am older and hearing how debate has helped you in creating this show, I am interested in learning more about it. Do you have any recommended resources/tips for learning debate/research skills as an adult that is no longer in school?

For those of you new to the podcast, I’ve spoken often about my experience in academic debate in both high school and college. It was far and away the most rewarding thing I did, and everyone I know who competed seriously had the same opinion. That includes a great many people I know who went on to get PhDs and JD’s.

One of the ways that debate helped me in doing this podcast is in research. Debate is mostly about research. Most debates are won or lost before the debate round actually starts.

If you didn’t do debate, the thing I would suggest is to read everything, and listen to everything, very critically.

Even if someone says something you agree with, they might not actually make an argument that supports their conclusion. Someone you disagree with might make a good point that doesn’t lead to the conclusion that they claim.I’m to the point where I can read something and say “this part makes sense but this part doesn’t.” You need to have a very honed BS detector, especially for things you might be included to believe in. As the great physicist Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

This isn’t easy to do. It requires a great deal of skepticism. The other thing is that you always have to hold out the possibility that you might be wrong. Treat your beliefs as hypothesis which are open to proof or disproof.