I suspect that "hoping ... the other person will prove me wrong" is framing the discussion in a way that will leads to being argumentative. So one thought is to build a different context for how you answer. That might not help though, because ...
The structural elements of internet discussions (including HN coments) does not really provide the structure for what Paul Graham described as "attempts to think" when he talked about essays. If for example, we, all of the readers, attempt to think as a community about this problem, what are the tools that HN provides to help us do that?
And its interesting because reading back over this, the first paragraph seems to be somewhat argumentative, while the second seems more like at least an attempt to attempt to think.
The structural elements of internet discussions (including HN coments) does not really provide the structure for what Paul Graham described as "attempts to think" when he talked about essays. If for example, we, all of the readers, attempt to think as a community about this problem, what are the tools that HN provides to help us do that?
And its interesting because reading back over this, the first paragraph seems to be somewhat argumentative, while the second seems more like at least an attempt to attempt to think.