This is the only behavioural rule in the community, and it's worth understanding why. A lot of what happens online — in communities, on social media, in podcasts — is people arguing for positions they already hold, often without having seriously considered the alternative. The result is a lot of strong opinions and not much understanding . I want this community to be for everyone to share and feel safe doing it. I know everyone won't always agree on everything, so this is a space for deeper topics and to practice shifting perspective. So if you really have something strong to say on a particular subject, this is what 'the other side' is for. The rule for the other side category is simple. If you want to argue for a position — on parenting, on building, on careers, on technology, on anything — you have to present it as the strongest version of the opposite view. Not a strawman. Not a token nod to "the other side has a point." The actual best argument someone smart and informed would make against you. The point isn't to be neutral or to refuse to take sides. The point is to make sure you've actually engaged with what you're disagreeing with. In practice, this does two things. It makes the conversations sharper, because the strongest version of each position is in the room. And it changes what you believe — because once you've genuinely argued the opposite side, you sometimes realise you were wrong, or that the disagreement is smaller than you thought, or that the question is different from the one you were answering, or that both sides have a place for each person. This isn't a debating exercise. It's how I want this community to think. A few examples of how this might look in practice: - If you want to argue against sleep training, first make the strongest case for it. The exhausted parent. The marriage under strain. The science as some interpret it. The cultural context. Then make your case against it. - If you want to argue against full-time childcare, first make the strongest case for it. The career continuity. The child's social development. The financial realities. The mental health of the primary caregiver. Then make your case.