Before an argument, decide what you’ll do if it turns out you’re wrong. It keeps you honest.

Arguments turn ugly mostly because losing one has started to feel unaffordable. If being wrong would cost you your footing, you will keep talking long past the point you stopped believing yourself. Deciding in advance what you will do if you turn out to be wrong pays that cost up front, while it is still cheap.

Before the next disagreement you can see coming, write one sentence: if they show you a particular thing, you will say so. Then say it if it happens. People forgive being wrong far more easily than they forgive the long defence of it.