Give it five minutes, by Jason Fried. Insights from someone who admits that he used to be a hothead: “whenever anyone said anything, I’d think of a way to disagree.” His life changed when someone responded:

Man, give it five minutes. It’s fine to disagree, it’s fine to push back, it’s great to have strong opinions and beliefs, but give my ideas some time to set in before you’re sure you want to argue against them.

Fried writes:

“Five minutes” represented “think”, not react. … Learning to think first rather than react quick is a life long pursuit. It’s tough. I still get hot sometimes when I shouldn’t. …

There’s also a difference between asking questions and pushing back. Pushing back means you already think you know. Asking questions means you want to know. Ask more questions. …

There are two things in this world that take no skill: 1. Spending other people’s money and 2. Dismissing an idea.

Dismissing an idea is so easy because it doesn’t involve any work. You can scoff at it. You can ignore it. You can puff some smoke at it. That’s easy. The hard thing to do is protect it, think about it, let it marinate, explore it, riff on it, and try it. The right idea could start out life as the wrong idea.

Political correctness is characterized by a learned canon (though it changes over time, often in contradictory ways). Ever notice how quick PC people are to shoot if someone dares to say something non-PC? Notice too how PC people are attracted to big government, which is all about spending other people’s money? And the organizations in Australia that do the most to teach the PC canon are creatures of big government — the ABC and the universities? No skill required…

hat-tip Matthew