Coaching practices for I Wave Through Arguments on My Side That I'd Tear Apart in a Heartbeat If the Other Side Made Them I'm Clearly Grading My Own Team on a Gentler Curve and I Want to Catch Myself Doing it
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I Wave Through Arguments on My Side That I'd Tear Apart in a Heartbeat If the Other Side Made Them I'm Clearly Grading My Own Team on a Gentler Curve and I Want to Catch Myself Doing it, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I wave through arguments on my side that I’d tear apart in a heartbeat if the other side made them
- A flimsy study that confirms what I want I’ll wave straight through, but a solid one that contradicts me I’ll pick apart for hours
- I notice I’m really arguing against this person
- I catch myself arguing against the weakest, dumbest version of what they said
- I water down the other side’s argument with little "they claim, without proof" jabs because I’m scared that stating it fairly will look like I agree with it
Practices that may help
- Apply the double-standard check: would I accept this reasoning if it pointed the other way?
Test whether you are holding your team’s arguments to a lower bar than the other side’s.
The Scout Mindset - Apply the same evidence standard regardless of whether you like the conclusion
Grade the evidence before you know which conclusion it supports.
Motivated Reasoning - Separate the argument from the arguer
Address the claim on its merits, not the person’s motives or character.
Productive Disagreement, Made Practical - Steel-man before you rebut
Restate the opposing view in its strongest form before you argue against it.
Productive Disagreement, Made Practical - Separate steelmanning from endorsing
Accurately represent a view without implying you agree with it.
Steelmanning - Evaluate the argument structure, not the source
Map the logic and evaluate it independently of who made the argument.
Argument Mapping - Distinguish steelmanning from sycophancy
Charitably interpreting a position is not the same as agreeing with it, refusing to disagree, or softening your critique to avoid conflict.
Steelmanning - Ask what alternative perspectives would say
Deliberately steelman the strongest objection to your current position before treating it as settled.
Socratic Questioning - Examine the evidence for and against
Systematically list what supports your interpretation and what doesn’t — like a fair-minded lawyer, not a prosecutor.
Check the Facts, Made Practical - Add the strongest objection to every major supporting reason
For each supporting reason, find the best counter and put it on the map.
Argument Mapping
Related concerns
- Evaluate Arguments Fairly
Test whether you are holding your team’s arguments to a lower bar than the other side’s.
Apply the double-standard check: would I accept this reasoning if it pointed the other way?
- How To Evaluate Arguments Fairly
Address the claim on its merits, not the person’s motives or character.
Separate the argument from the arguer
- When Elaboration Likelihood Model Strong Argument Quality
When your audience is engaged and able, weak arguments actively backfire — make every point earn its place.
Lead with argument quality on the central route
- Argument Strength Rating
Assign a confidence to each "supports" or "rebuts" link, not just to the conclusion.
Rate the strength of each logical link
- Steelman Argument
Steelmanning — popularized by Daniel Dennett as a core intellectual virtue — means reconstructing an opposing position in its strongest, most charitable form before responding to it. It is the deliberate inverse of strawmanning. The practice is well-established in philosophy and structured debate; direct experimental evidence for its effects on reasoning quality is limited, but its mechanism is logically sound.
- Straw Man Fallacy
Reconstruct the strongest possible version of the argument you disagree with — then respond to that.
Steelman the opposing view before rebutting it
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