Hello, I’m Huang Zhizhong.

Years ago at university, a teacher said something I have never forgotten.

He called debate a luxurious aristocratic sport. What did he mean? Most people ordinarily care about immediate daily concerns: When will my boss give me a raise? What can I do about my child’s grades? How can I meet this client’s demand? Our intelligence, energy, and talent are consumed by such questions.

There is nothing wrong with that; it is normal. But imagine someone briefly stepping outside those daily concerns to consider supposedly irrelevant questions: Should same-sex marriage be legal? Is overnight fame at twenty a good thing?

What a luxury it is to be able to do that.

It does not empty your mind. It gives the brain a different stimulus and asks it to wrestle with matters unrelated to oneself. That is why I often recommend debating. Even if you are not eloquent, listening to others reason lets your mind turn an issue upside down and back again. It feels exceptionally luxurious.

So this audio introduces my junior schoolmate Pang Ying and her Vistopia program, Critical Thinking: Think Like a Debater.

Pang Ying has two distinguishing qualities:

First, she is thoroughly professional in debate.She may hesitate to say it herself, but while she coached the National University of Singapore debate team, it ranked first in Asia for four or five consecutive years. Pang Ying trained them, so her expertise is beyond question.

Second, she is exceptionally straightforward and grounded.Her debating emphasizes neither eloquence nor emotional display. Her teaching is all substance: inference and logic step by step, especially useful for anyone wanting to stimulate the mind.

Amid the daily necessities of life, if you want the luxury of letting debate exercise your mind, I strongly recommend Pang Ying’s Critical Thinking: Think Like a Debater.

I’m Huang Zhizhong, and I will be listening to her course with you.