I love this post. I always think that most of the time there isn’t really any conflicts. I have been in so many situations whereby two sides were actually arguing for the same thing — they just want to other side to admit that their “definitional understanding” of what they’re arguing was better than that of the counterpart’s. This, of course, is stupid, time-wasting, and a great crime to years of humanity’s ability to perform an act of communication. So, I think the lesson that I take from this post is simply the ideas of empathising deeply with the other side, don’t just negotiate but also deliberate, and always remind yourself that maybe, maybe, both of you actually want the same thing but are arguing over a straw man…