I came out of the school system thinking that there are 4 ways to spread ideas: the expository essay, the persuasive essay, the analytical essay, and the argumentative essay. Or whatever. But it turns out (as with many things school taught me) that’s just not true.
I’ve discovered an interesting way to spread extreme ideas. That is, ideas that are unpalatable or uncommon. There are two things you have to do if you want to make people stop and think about these kinds of things:
- Get rid of the fluff. Get out of the middle of the road. Hop off the fence. And do so without shame or reservation.
- Don’t acknowledge all the counter-arguments against your statement, and don’t even acknowledge all of the points of a particular counter-argument. Extreme ideas should be presented extremely.
Inspired by my reading of Nietzsche and Hermann Hesse over the past few years. Listen to the full recording above to hear me put these “rules” into context with an example from my life.