People get it confused.

Productive conversations are not had by communicating with people who think differently than you.

It's communicating with people who share similar reservoirs of information, yet come to different conclusions that create productive conversation.

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I have had many unproductive conversations with people on Twitter, and the primary reason why those conversations are not productive is because they are generating conclusions from a set of narratives and interpretations that I don't share.

It is all about...

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...these differences in information.

Even if you have different moral or political values, those can be identified quickly and you can see the reason for the disagreement.

But, when someone is reading publications much different than you and listening to podcasts...

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...you don't, then unfortunately the conversation you two will have will be fraught with confusion and misunderstanding.

You will become frustrated with each other, because the facts you use to build an argument are facts unbeknownst to them, and vice-versa.

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But if you are speaking to someone who is drawing from the same body of ideas, but somehow comes to a different conclusion - then you have the dialogical jackpot!

I relearn this lesson monthly when communicating with anti-social justice folks.

I am...

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