Hello, I’m Zhan Qingyun.

Pang and I met through debate more than ten years ago. Throughout that time she has been my best opponent, teammate, coach, and behind-the-scenes strategist. The debates I treasure most and the occasional memorable lines I left on screen always owe something to her selfless help and counsel.

Pang is warm and dependable. Whether a beginner newly joining the team or a veteran like me after more than a decade, whenever we face a bewildering motion, an impossible dilemma, a rebuttal with no point of entry, or tangled thoughts, she is the first person we think of.

She calms people. She builds a clear framework around a hopeless tangle and turns one mass of difficulties into questions that can be answered and solved step by step. She is my personal think tank and everyone’s strategist.

Some people’s reasoning and expression come from talent; others improve through continuously reviewing success and failure, distinguishing experience, and pursuing mastery in practice.

Yet abstracting principles from complicated cases and methods from one’s own and others’ practice—methods transferable and shareable with others—is itself a talent.

More than Pang’s talent as a debater, I admire her gifts as a coach and as a seeker and sharer of method. They humble me.

I am glad Vistopia found Pang and Pang found Vistopia. The platform gives her freedom to share, in her friendly, plain, and incisive style, methods she has practiced and used to help me, many debaters, and working professionals.

Debate may look like my hobby, but throughout my education and career, critical thought and evidence-based persuasion have been indispensable foundational abilities.

I once presented Think Like a Lawyer on Vistopia. I see Think Like a Debater as both its foundation and its elevation. It leads not only toward legal thinking, but toward thinking like an executive, strategy consultant, team leader, or university employee.

I hope this program becomes a warm and illuminating companion now, and over the longer future remains something to revisit, renew, learn from, and gain from.