I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and besides the pig likes it. – G. B. Shaw (misattributed)

That’s all well and good except I’m pretty senior now. Suddenly part of my job is winning arguments. - Abe Winter

Arguments don’t kill releases, people do

every new idea is badly received. As a leader it’s your job to bring people along with you.

‘No doesn’t mean stop asking’ sounds like tricky JT Doggzone dating advice, but apparently is an optimal starting point when persuading colleagues.

I’m wondering if part of my caution about picking fights comes from picking fights with the wrong people. By which I mean people who:

• Think that every detail of their original plan must be preserved in stone
• Would rather debate endlessly than compromise
• Reveal surprise changes between design & release. Sometimes this is necessary but in general it’s a lack of discipline, a workaround to the design process
• Don’t know their reasoning because they internalized someone else’s opinion, and now are blindly arguing for it in a wider setting. In a Julian Jaynes ‘voices in your head’ kind of way, this is insane. I’ve been crazy this way and it’s not fun.
• Worst of all: people not willing to engage in any argument at all. People who can’t defend their plan without getting angry, but also the ones who can’t help you unravel a problem or bounce ideas.

By opposing all argument, these characters are also the enemy of finishing. But by not fighting them with the right tools, you’re the enemy of finishing too.

see also

• Logical fallacies