Does the exchange of ideas really matter?

A renown and representative interviewer, Margaret Heffernan speaks highly of the value of the exchange of ideas.As she explicit put it, “for good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction,conflict, argument, debate.” Yet the statement is greeted with mixed opinion.

The fundamental advantage lies in that insights are inspired like sparks are struck, in whatever form of exchange of ideas. It plays a vital role in such fields as policy making, scientific discovery and entrepreneur startups.Einstein’s letter to his friend Michele Besso would be a perfect, if not the most notable, example in this sense. His discussion with Michele is one of the origin of his proposal of The Theory of Relativity. The second advantage is that the opposition needs to speak up so that different voices could be heard,thus their interests would be considered and safeguarded. This is particularly irreplaceable when formulating a new policy or amending an existing one. That is why parliamentary debates or the similar discussion are an indispensable step in a policy making process in many counties of the world.   

Nonetheless,we ought not to neglect the disadvantages of arguments and conflicts. Once drawninto such a state of tension, people involved are easily infuriated, as theytend to focus on their own benefits, rather than standing in others’ shoes. Thereby,the presumably constructive discussion turns out to vying with each other. Thesanity of the decision needs considering of the stakeholders. On the otherhand, superficial rivals or oppositions with shallow judgements or comments wouldbe an annoying distraction, which seems to be a foregone conclusion to arguments.

To put it in a nutshell, the advantages of exchange of ideas outweigh their disadvantages.

As a matter of fact, we have been reminded by George Bernard Shaw—when exchanging our ideas with the other’s we obtain twoset of ideas, while we still have one apple in a scenario of apple exchange.

有一到了个声音告诉我，到了英国，想要了解英国高校的国际化，有一个大学肯定要去——诺丁汉大学。对于研究跨境教育的人，西交利物浦和宁波诺丁汉是两个再熟悉不过的机构。正是他们成为国内中外合作办学的样本。前几天，看到一则国际会议通知，就在诺丁汉大学举办。我想，做这个梦定是冥冥之中提醒我。

这个梦发生在刚才。10点左右到图书馆的时候，几乎没几个人，好像是放假了一般，全然没有了前两个星期人们为患的情景。考试周过去了。