Bo Seo, a two-time world debate champion and former Harvard debate coach, highlights the decline of productive public conversations. He introduces the RISA framework—Real, Important, Specific, Aligned—as a tool to evaluate when to engage in arguments. Seo emphasizes the importance of creating a conversational contract and suggests using side-switch exercises to build empathy and humility. He believes sharpening debate skills can enhance our ability to navigate personal and political dialogues, fostering more meaningful discussions.
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insights INSIGHT
Public Conversations Have Atrophied
Our public conversations are stuck because people shout from a distance and refuse to engage productively.
Bo Seo argues that declining argument skills have eroded faith in productive disagreement.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Finding Voice Through Debate
Bo Seo moved from South Korea to Australia at eight and found disagreements the hardest part of crossing language and cultural lines.
He joined debate because the rule that one person speaks at a time gave him conversational safety.
insights INSIGHT
Wisdom Is Picking What To Respond To
Intelligence is the ability to respond to any argument while wisdom is knowing which arguments to respond to.
Without careful boundaries, many differences flood a dispute and prevent progress on any single issue.
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Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach, Bo Seo.
Bo Seo, an author and two-time world debate champion, believes our public conversations are in crisis. To Seo, our arguing skills have collectively atrophied over recent decades, resulting in bad arguments that have caused many people to lose faith in the idea that productive disagreements are even possible.
That's why Seo suggests a framework called RISA — which stands for "Real, Important, Specific, and Aligned" — to help people pick their fights more wisely and to give conversations the best possible chance of success. RISA helps individuals find a better way to disagree.
Seo believes that by making a contract with the other party and reminding them of the rules, conversations can be productive, and disagreements can lead to progress.
0:00 Why you’re losing your arguments
1:11 The making of a world champion
2:17 Intelligence vs wisdom
3:04 The RISA framework
4:29 Applying the RISA framework
6:23 Picking a good fight
7:46 Weak vs. Strong arguments
9:21 Side-switch exercises
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About Bo Seo:
Bo Seo is a two-time world champion debater and a former coach of the Australian national debating team and the Harvard College Debating Union. One of the most recognized figures in the global debate community, he has won both the World Schools Debating Championship and the World Universities Debating Championship. Bo has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, and many other publications. He has worked as a national reporter for the Australian Financial Review and has been a regular panelist on the prime time Australian debate program, The Drum. Bo graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and received a master’s degree in public policy from Tsinghua University. He is currently a student at Harvard Law School.
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