THINQon : How do you create a successful conversation?

The Living Room General How do you create a successful conversation?

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Andy Ollove, TBD

How do you create a successful conversation?

Latest Post: January 22, 2011 at 3:58 PM

11 followers

What are the characteristics that make some posts on this website more successful than others?
Successful is of course a subjective quality. But I think for the purposes of this post, we can rate a conversation's success on its frequency of activity over time as well as the number of participants involved.

So what is involved in creating a conversation that maximizes both those qualities?

I wonder because I have this feeling that at a certain point conversations cease being a dialogue and instead become a single (dynamic) idea. Think Civil Rights, at first it was only a conversation, but after it achieved a momentum (frequency of conversation, number of participants) the actual conversation became a whole new framework in which people could now think.

What is a global conversation?

How can they begin?

Why is something worth engaging in a conversation?

This post is referenced by the following other contributors:

Andy Ollove	in "One of a kind college majors / A conversation"	(Study)
Andy Ollove	in "One of a kind college majors / One of a kind college majors"	(Study)

Reply to:

Juri Pavlov

November 11, 2010 at 7:16 AM

12 followers

Well Andy I think the answer is somewhat more complicated than it might look like at first. To begin with I agree with you that ideas are often born from conversations. Still, what precedents most ideas is a question that you ask yourself or others. In my experience a conversation can be easily initiated by asking the appropriate question. This might seem easy but in many cases it is not. In order for an interesting debate to start the question must fit your audience. For example it is in most cases futile to try talking about literature with people who are studying informatics. It is an entire different story if you ask them what they think about the newest windows or the advantages of C#. (not a prejudice just my personal experience) – Good conversationalists a versed in many topics to be able to participate in debates pertaining to different fields.

I think there are several basic reasons why people might choose to participate in a conversation:

-          The subject interests them or makes them curious.

-          They think that participating in a given conversation might benefit them in a certain way

-          To bolster one’s self-esteem and to check whether one’s ideas can survive the scrutiny of peers.

This list could go on for a while I think but I only wrote down what came to mind first. The mood of a person or of an audience also plays a crucial role. There is a myriad of factors which also influence each other.

Reply to: or

Andy Ollove, TBD

November 11, 2010 at 3:40 PM

11 followers

Cool! Thanks for the response! (Gratuity and enthusiasm foster a safe and fun environment for the discussion of new ideas!)

I think your point Juri of the question is central. If all conversations must start from a statement, be it a question or idea, then the way in which a conversation travels is through the development and rearticulation of the original idea, the original question, the original problem, however you want to call it.

A successful conversation must then be one which can over and over again rearticulate its birth. A conversation is an idea in the constant state of becoming.

So let me reask my original question in a new way.

How does an idea travel?

Reply to: or

Juri Pavlov

In response to Andy Ollove

November 11, 2010 at 8:04 PM

12 followers

„How does an idea travel?“

That’s an even tougher question than the ones in your initial post – well at least in my opinion. Why do I perceive it to be that tough?

The propagation of an idea through a society and its ability to transcend continents is an essential aspect of solving problems or initializing change (the desirability of such change is another topic altogether) Still you might already have an inkling what I am getting at. Politicians, NGOs and almost everybody who wants to provoke change always have to ask themselves the same question “How do I spread my idea/concept/vision”.

The question you are asking has a very broad scope. People have spent entire careers trying to find an answer to a fraction of what it encompasses. What is more, I think we should substitute the word idea with a somewhat more precise one – e.g. Norm, Vision, Concept … An idea is a very generic term and depending on the context it can be so many things.