I have been a coldly logical operator for the bulk of my career. Despite arguing from a position of obvious correctness against positions of obvious incorrectn

I have been a coldly logical operator for the bulk of my career. Despite arguing from a position of obvious correctness against positions of obvious incorrectness, as clearly proven by me, and agreed with by many spectators, I often found all I was doing was upsetting people and creating bad relationships. You're not going to be able to convince someone who is disagreeing with you from an emotional place, no matter how much logic you throw at them. In addition, you're making it worse each time you do this, because you're ignoring what they're saying, and what they're saying is really important to them. Listening with empathy is how you bring people to the table. It's also how you understand when to walk away. When you try to forcefully convince someone out of their emotional beliefs without understanding how they got there (and you aren't coworkers or running out of air or something) they will think you are an asshole. The less emotional / more logical person is in the best position to open with empathy.