Me vs THEM!

I am a plant. I like to sit in a corner and busy myself with ideas or tasks that do not require conversation. If I can contribute to the team without having to communicate regularly, I am content. I think that my thoughts and ideas are sensible. I believe that I arrive at my conclusions logically and that my thoughts are reasonable. I, therefore do not take too well to people poking and prodding into [what I think is] my business. I am especially difficult when people appear to be challenging my reasoning. 

I would consider myself to be a teachable person, in the sense that I have the capacity to absorb information and, if necessary, I can train myself to recall it [except for languages. I seem to be incapable of confidently practising any of the languages I have attempted to learn]. What I cannot do though, is step away from a debate. I find myself needing to defend my stand and become increasingly defensive when I am wrong [as if my shame amplifies my desire to win]. 

Yesterday we had a most profound debate about the mass of cement required to create a cement/water slurry with density of 1.54 grams per cubic centimetre. The problem is that we had different methods and somehow arrived at slightly different results. By the time I remembered to contain myself, we were 10 minutes into the debate, jabs had been taken at people's egos and people were already beginning to apologise. Today, our debate was about the results of a distillation process. I did the test twice, to determine whether the results were reproducible. Surprisingly, [because this is rare] I was right and the challenger was forced to back away. 

I'm lucky that he is a friendly chap, the kind who doesn't remember such things. I am even luckier that he enjoys these debates because he wants to improve my learning experience. Despite my luck, I know I need to deal with these situations in a more diplomatic manner. I can't use brute force. One of these days, I may win the argument and lose a friend. I have to be careful since I have so few of those; friends, not arguments.