The truth is that I discriminate against irrational people. If I eventually find out that someone who I have discussions or debates with makes irrational arguments to defend a personal bias then I tend to pigeon-hole this person in my mind and set up a mental note to redirect future commentary by this person to my mental “Deleted Items” folder unless those comments are referenced by some other person whose credibility is not suspect. [Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life]
I like how Jim McCarthy described this in his landmark book Dynamics of Software Development: Flipping the Bozo Bit.
And on the subject of must reads from Jim McCarthy, check out Software for Your Head and the Core Protocols v1.0.