Debate & Disagreement
Colleges may ask you about a time you disagreed with someone or were challenged on an important topic…
What do you write about? Politics? Religion? Sexuality?
I rarely say no to a topic, but I will always caution students that the above topics tend to become very cliché very quickly. They don’t lend themselves to strong college essays because there are such obvious sides to many of these arguments, so all you’re really demonstrating is that you can pick a side and be a follower. Not ideal.
Here are a few real examples of people disagreeing on something in more interesting and thoughtful ways.
Choose vs Decide
There is an institution called the Landmark Forum that differentiates between the words “decide” and “choose”. Decide comes from the Latin decidere which literally means “to cut off”. It has this connotation of killing off an option that has been lost in the modern use of the word. On the other hand, “choose” means something more like “select”. It doesn’t have the same elements of “cutting off” that decide has.
Now, Landmark generally leans you towards the use of the word “choose”. It’s more positive, more uplifting, and it can give you some amount of personal agency. They talk a lot more about this concept, but these are the bare bones. Alex Hormozi, on the other hand, appreciates the word “decide”. He argues that you have to eliminate all other options; otherwise, you’re not fully committed to the option you say that you’ve chosen. (Alex is a first-generation Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.) Here’s a clip of him discussing this idea.
What do you think?
Arcane Example
I really encourage you to seek inspiration in many places, including some of your favorite books and TV shows. This comes from the show Arcane, based on League of Legends lore.
Once character, Vander, believes that building community will help to restore the dignity that is missing from essentially the “undercity”. The “overcity” has oppressed them, and he wants to fight that. He does so by trying to build community to create stability and restore family.
Another character, Silco, is pitted against Vander. Silco believes that you will restore dignity by making your enemies fear you. He believes the people of the “undercity” need to force the “overcity” to respect them. He hopes to start a war against the “overcity”, and believes that this will fix the “undercity”.
Learn more about this in a quick short by YouTube creator Schnee.
What do you think? Community or Respect?
The Importance of Naming
Knowing the name of something is obviously crucial for fluid communication, reference, research, categorization and more. Furthermore, in a lot of folklore, knowledge of someone’s true name allows you to influence or have power over that person. In Rumpelstiltskin’s story, he is defeated when a character learns his true name. Odysseus does not tell Polyphemus is real name. In The Hobbit, Bilbo doesn’t reveal his name to the dragon Smaug. In many religions, gods (or God) hide their names, or humans simply don’t know their names. The list is extensive, and it extends into modern fiction as well.
You might argue that folklore is just stories, but these stories are how humanity constructed our reality for thousands of years. We seem to believe, very deeply and across many cultures and religions and continents, that a name holds some kind of power.
Now, Richard Feynman, deceased and incredibly respected American theoretical physicist, made the point that knowing the name of something doesn’t mean that you understand it at all. He talks about a conversation he had with his dad about a bird they saw: “You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. You'll only know about humans in different places, and what they call the bird”.
Certainly, understanding and power aren’t the same, but this does seem to indicate a bit of a debate.
What do you think?
Smell
This one really requires reading a book, but if it’s something you’re into (or if you’re an 8th or 9th grader with a lot of time looking to get started early), it’s a really interesting topic. The basic concept is that most of the world thinks (and has thought for a long time) that smell is driven by shape. If a smell with a 𖤓 shape hits your nose, then maybe you smell buttered popcorn, but if a smell with a જ shape hits your nose, then you’re smelling sewage. That’s the idea.
Then, this guy Luca Turin comes along (technically he wasn’t the first, but he really did a lot of work to synthesize and try to prove this idea), and he suggests that smell is based on vibration (just like vision and sound are). You’d really need to read the book. I recommend starting with the biography on him first, then you could read his own book. I think the biography is really robust.
And after you read it…what do you think?
Science
What is science? Well, that’s a massive question by itself. Go dive into that one for sure! But, here are two comments on science that I think portray different perspectives that are worth considering.
Firas Zahabi, Canadian martial artist, suggests that Science is faith that the future will behave like the past. Here’s a small clip of that. That alone is pretty interesting, because it encourages us to imagine a world in which the future does NOT behave like the past. Gravity exists today…but what if it doesn’t tomorrow? Colors look like this today…but what about tomorrow?
So, on the flip side, many people have suggested that if there isn't some experiment could that could theoretically disprove something, then it's not Science. Science, as we like to think of it, must be capable of being absolutely right or wrong. Well, that doesn’t sound like faith at all…
What do you think?
The New Space Race
Jeff Bezos wants to move all polluting industries off of earth and into space. His plan is to preserve earth, rehabilitate it, and keep living here.
Elon Musk is trying to get people to Mars. His goal is to become multi-planetary as a species, living beyond earth.
What do you think?
More Links
Below are a few links to videos, articles, and other things across the internet that I think could lead you into an interesting debate or discussion. Remember, for these essays, you are allowed to make up both sides of the discussion. You just have to make sure both sides feel real and well-thought.
Do we really care about historical accuracy?
The Efficient Compute Frontier
This one is an interesting law that currently exists, that you could debate about.