> We’re often encouraged to bending over backward to see things from the other person’s point of view, to be kind, to be charitable This seems to be a misunder

> We’re often encouraged to bending over backward to see things from the other person’s point of view, to be kind, to be charitable This seems to be a misunderstanding of steelmanning. My understanding was that, it's a way to ensure that you counter the opposing argument decisively - not allowing for repeated "oh but I really meant x" or "let me put it a better way". It's not about "niceness" (which really is beside the point). Steelmanning is still an adversarial debating technique - it just aims to be a more effective one. The aim is ideally to reach the "truth" faster for everyone's benefit.