Given these principles of the ARC triangle and its components, how would you talk to a man?

You cannot talk adequately to a man if you are in a subapathy (a state of disinterest below apathy) condition. In fact, you would not talk to him at all. You would have to have a little higher affinity than that to discuss things with anyone. Your ability to talk to any given man has to do with your emotional response to any given man. Anyone has different emotional responses to different people around him. In view of the fact that two terminals, or, that is to say, two people, are always involved in communication, one could see that someone else would have to be somewhat real. If one does not care about other people at all, one will have a great deal of difficulty talking to them, that is certain. The way to talk to a man, then, would be to find something to like about him and to discuss something with which he can agree. This is the downfall of most new ideas: One does not discuss subjects with which the other person has any point of agreement at all. And we come to a final factor with regard to reality. 

That with which we agree tends to be more real than that with which we do not agree. There is a definite coordination between agreement and reality. Those things are real which we agree are real. Those things are not real which we agree are not real. On those things upon which we disagree we have very little reality. An experiment based on this would be an even joking discussion between two men of a third man who is present. The two men agree on something with which the third man cannot agree. The third man will drop in emotional tone and will actually become less real to the two people who are discussing him. 

How do you talk to a man then? You establish reality by finding something with which you both agree. Then you attempt to maintain as high an affinity level as possible by knowing there is something you can like about him. And you are then able to talk with him. If you do not have the first two conditions, it is fairly certain that the third condition will not be present, which is to say, you will not be able to talk to him easily. 

Affinity, reality and communication are interdependent one upon the other, and when one drops the other two drop also. When one rises the other two rise also. It is only necessary to improve one corner of this very valuable triangle in Scientology in order to improve the remaining two corners. It is only necessary to improve two corners of the triangle to improve the third. 

Understanding

Understanding is compounded of affinity, reality and communication. When an individual's understanding is great, his ARC is quite high, and when an individual's ability to understand is small, his ARC is accordingly small. 

When we have raised these three parts we have raised somebody's understanding. It is use of the ARC triangle which accomplishes this. 

This triangle is the keystone of living associations. It is the common denominator of all life activities. Its use means a greater understanding of life itself.