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selection of tweets from the book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote toChaos, by Jordan B. Peterson (Allen Lane, 448 pages, 2018).
- Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.
- When you’re involved in a genuine conversation, you’re listening, and talking—but mostly listening. Listening is paying attention.
- It’s amazing what people will tell you if you listen. Sometimes if you listen to people, they will even tell you what’s wrong with them. Sometimes they will even tell you how they plan to fix it.
- True thinking is rare—just like true listening. Thinking is listening to yourself. It’s difficult. To think, you have to be at least two people at the same time.
- True thinking is complex and demanding. It requires you to be an articulate speaker and careful, judicious listener, at the same time.
- A listening person tests your talking (and your thinking) without having to say anything. A listening person is a representative of common humanity.