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Re:Ask HN: An advice that changed your life? by uoaei on Saturday October 29, 2022 @12:20PM (#33385443)
Taking a side does not mean submitting yourself to an argument. The advice is "take a side", not "advocate/defend a side in all circumstances".
Re:Ask HN: An advice that changed your life? by CamperBob2 on Saturday October 29, 2022 @01:48PM (#33386329)
Usually my conclusion is more like:

1) There is no such thing as "both sides." There are always more than two sides.

2) They should all die in a fire.

Not sure that helps anyone, but I call 'em as I see 'em.

Re:Ask HN: An advice that changed your life? by kortilla on Sunday October 30, 2022 @02:05AM (#33391619)
It involves grokking the arguments from both sides and if it’s anything non-trivial it will take hours to actually give it due diligence. “Taking a side” without being some political hot-head dipshit is a massive waste of time.
Re:Ask HN: An advice that changed your life? by uoaei on Sunday October 30, 2022 @11:10AM (#33395105)
You don't necessarily need to be right, either, but the point is to take a stand so that there's something substantial to discuss. Put another way -- allow yourself the opportunity of being wrong. The assumption is that good faith dialectic follows, though of course that is an assumption made only on good faith.
Re:Ask HN: An advice that changed your life? by kortilla on Sunday October 30, 2022 @05:09PM (#33398736)
Nope, that’s still a massive waste of time. There is an endless pool of deep nuanced disputes in a world with billions of people.

Look at just the US elections coming. There are probably 10,000+ seats of significant municipal, state, or national power up for turnover in two weeks. You cannot form a meaningful opinion on even 1% of those and it will be out of date almost immediately.