John Dickerson

John Dickerson is a CBS senior national correspondent and Chief Political Analyst. He is also a Contributing Writer to The Atlantic and is co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest.

  • 07/13/2024: Asking ChatGPT for ways to engage in conversation.

    Is this the right way to write this query?
    Q: Someone is making a point to me with which I disagree, but I might be wrong and miss a chance to learn something. They are members of the human race, so I owe them grace and no motive-questioning at the start, but I don’t want to be snookered, and sometimes I might engage in conversations where people who participate in them act in bad faith for political, ego and attention-grabbing reasons. My patience, concentration and energy are not limitless. Time spent in an unproductive exchange has an opportunity cost. Please create a list of short instructions (please don’t go on) for how I should interpret their argument and maintain maximum humanity while at the same time exhibiting efficient critical thinking which would prompt me to duck out if the exchange has become stale or toxic. Please provide guidance for identifying such sour turns.
    ChatGPT
    1. Absolutely, John. Here’s a concise guide for interpreting arguments with both humanity and critical thinking:
      1. Listen Completely: Ensure you fully understand their argument before reacting.
      2. Clarify and Probe: Ask for details and examples to better grasp their points.
      3. Stay Open: Keep an open mind and avoid premature judgment.
      4. Maintain Respect: Engage politely and keep a calm tone.
      5. Assess Evidence: Critically evaluate the validity and sources of their claims.
      6. Focus on Arguments, Not People: Address the ideas, not the individual’s character.
      7. Spot Fallacies: Be alert for logical errors in their reasoning.
      8. Separate Emotion from Logic: Identify whether the argument relies on emotional appeals or facts.
      9. Delay Motive Analysis: Concentrate on the argument’s content before considering potential motives.
      10. Monitor Time: Be mindful of the conversation’s duration to avoid unproductive exchanges.
      11. Identify Sour Turns:
        • Repetition: The same points are being rehashed without new information.
        • Ad Hominem Attacks: The discussion shifts to personal attacks.
        • Straw Man Arguments: Misrepresenting your position to refute it easily.
        • Red Herrings: Introducing irrelevant topics to divert from the main issue.
        • Hostility: The tone becomes aggressive or disrespectful.
      12. Exit Gracefully: Politely end the conversation if it becomes repetitive, personal, or unproductive.

      This approach ensures a balanced, respectful, and efficient engagement while recognizing when to step away from a futile discussion.

    • More Notions

  • 04/14/2023: Summer's End

    It’s hot today for the first time of the season, which makes it feel like the start of summer. Time to start stacking the sandbags against the end of summer blues. The sun is going down. This song came on shuffle. It’s from John Prine’s Tree of Forgiveness. Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of the […]

  • 04/10/2023: New Feature: CBS political archive tastes

  • 04/08/2023: Chat GPT and checking yourself

    When your words don’t land as you intend it can be because a) you were unclear b) the people listening misunderstood your point or c) some members of the audience are willfully misunderstanding what you say. I was recently asked about the Tennessee lawmakers kicked out of the body. So I asked Chat GPT to […]

  • 04/02/2023: CBS This Morning on Trump Indictment

  • 04/01/2023: What's in the Indictment? A debate with Chat GPT

    Here is an argument about the recent indictment of former President Trump: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted. The people who know what is in the indictment aren’t talking. The people who are talking don’t know what’s in the indictment. None of them do. It’s sealed. Nevertheless, a lot of time will be spent […]

  • 04/01/2023: Chat GPT is terrible at poltiics

    Question: The Manhattan district attorney has issued an indictment of Donald Trump but the facts are not known and will not be known for several days, how should that encourage or discourage a person from forming opinions about the indictment itself? As an AI language model, I cannot provide personal opinions, but I can offer […]

  • 03/28/2023: See the gift, ease the burden.

    Everyone has at least one gift and one burden. It is hard to find the gift in some people. See the gift, ease the burden.

  • 03/26/2023: Old note found: moving up the time of grace

    Dr. Nadia Chaudhri died on October 5, 2021. She narrated her death from cancer on her Twitter feed. Every time I read her writing I thought about the grace on display. The lessons she was able to give us. I just found a note I wrote to myself after reading one of her entries: “move […]

  • 03/25/2023: A satisfying GPT exchange

    A lot of the coverage of change GPT has been about the learning and development of artificial intelligence. What I wonder is how we, as humans, are going to slowly learn and acculturate to the kinds of exchanges with ChatGPT and its cousins. What I’m thinking about is the psychological closeness that will accrue in […]

  • 03/25/2023: In the days of easy poison

    When people dropped dead for any variety of reasons, it was much easier to poison your enemies,and have your murder written off as just another one of those episodes where a person was dropping dead because people dropped dead all the time. This seems to have been what happened. In the case of. William Longespee […]