Day 9 – Play devils advocate on a post or message thread to learn more

You’re chugging along here, already at day 9 of 21 days to becoming a better domainer. What do you think so far? Do you feel it? Like I said up front, not rocket science here. Just some disciplines that are easy to let slide if you don’t map out your plan and execute on it.

Today, I challenge you to be “that guy” or “that girl”. You know, the guy that challenges another poster in a forum or comments with a disagreement on a blog. That doesn’t mean you have to be a dick. In fact, you sort of have to go out of your way to be a dick, so don’t worry about it. All you’re trying to do is challenge what was stated. You don’t even need to say it’s wrong, just question it intelligently and publicly.

I’ve seen some heated debates and attacks on blogs and forums and that’s not the goal here. You want to be productive, you want to learn something. The goal is not to see who can come up with the best insult. As fun as that might be, there is nothing professional and nothing worth gaining from doing that. You are not picking a fight. You are challenging or questioning a point of view in order to further your understanding.

I’m providing a very simple example from my own blog below. This goes back quite a few years but it’s one that’s suck with me. I remember at the time thinking to myself in response to @UZOMA, “Damn, that’s a great question. I would like to know the answer to that too!” It was a sincere point, with a sincere question and seemed like @UZOMA was questioning to learn more, which benefits everyone.

I had a teacher in school once tell me, “I’m a teacher, but don’t take everything I say as fact. Teachers are wrong sometimes and you need to be able to question what I say to uncover the answers.” So I am telling you, I’m a blogger, but don’t take everything I post as fact. Don’t take everything you read on forums as fact because you think someone is more experienced.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein