Habits That Block Conversation

You can find this interesting and helpful reading at the Learn@UW course site.

It's interesting to me (A.J.) how the article hits home on habits that I know I suffer from, but also things that frustrate me about conversations I've had. I don't know about all of you, but I also see the type of habits that block conversations happening at a larger scale as well, in politics, news articles, and on campus.

For some personal conversations, I sometimes want to hold many truths at once for a while. This is for honoring multiple perspectives, but also because I'm just not ready to claim one truth over another. I find that this doesn't always work very well. The other participants in the conversation often don't tend to understand that I'm not trying to advocate for a certain point, but that the topic of conversation itself is what I'm after. I find that with some extra effort though, I can use my knowledge of these habits, or tendencies to engage in real, authentic conversations. And, I find it rewarding and refreshing.

Leave a comment if you want to share your own thoughts on this article.