Leave a line of retreat

www.greaterwrong.com/posts/3XgYbghWruBMrPTAL/leave-a-line-of-retreat

From Sun Tzu, one translation: "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard."

Equally applicable for your debate partner and yourself.

For yourself: When there's an unpleasant idea and you're trying to judge whether it's true, you can ask yourself how the world would look if it were true and what you would do then. Now you have an "outlet" – a line of retreat – it's no longer illegal for the unpleasant idea to be true and you can seriously consider it.

In a debate, this Sun Tzu quote also maps to the courtesy of giving your partner a way to avoid feeling embarrassed, and that's part of How to Have Impossible Conversations.

What links here

• Rationality techniques