Latest Posts
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Relationships
🤝 Many negotiators talk about relationships. Few calculate their value. Confucius has been bothered by this since the beginning of the evening. “Why do people treat relationships as something soft?” he asks. “And not as an asset?” Augustus responds immediately. “Because assets should be measurable.” Confucius smiles. “Then let us measure the cost of lost…
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Bluffing
🎭 Almost everyone rejects bluffing. Until it becomes useful. When the subject comes up, Benjamin Franklin grows unusually quiet. Augustus becomes attentive. Niccolò Machiavelli looks thoroughly amused. Maimonides, on the other hand, looks as though he already knows exactly how the discussion will unfold. “People deceive all the time,” Machiavelli says. “In business. In politics.…
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Red lines
🚧 The most dangerous negotiations don’t end in failure. They end in agreement. And are regretted later. Thomas More has said remarkably little all evening. Even by his standards, that’s unusual. Suddenly, he speaks. “May I ask a question?” Socrates smiles. “How do you know when you’ve gone too far?” Niccolò Machiavelli answers immediately. “When…