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.

In negotiations.”

A brief pause.

“And afterwards, many simply call it strategy.”

Maimonides looks up.

“And many later call self-interest a matter of principle.”

A direct hit.

Franklin takes a long sip.

Historically, the two could hardly have thought more differently.

Machiavelli asks:

Does it work?

Maimonides asks:

What does it cost?

A significant difference.

“Information is power,” says Machiavelli.

“So is trust,” replies Maimonides.

“Trust takes a long time to build.”

“So does lost trust,” Maimonides adds.

For the first time, Machiavelli remains silent for more than a moment.

Most discussions about bluffing focus on the wrong question.

Not:

Can bluffing work?

Of course it can.

The better question is:

What happens when it is discovered?

Reputation behaves much like capital.

It takes years to build.

And only moments to lose.

Augustus joins the discussion.

“The problem with deception is rarely the deception itself.

It’s the assumption that you can control it forever.”

Machiavelli writes that one down.

Socrates looks around the table.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t ask whether deception works.

Perhaps we should ask whether we’re willing to live with the consequences.”

No one disagrees.

👉 Where do you draw the line between legitimate negotiation tactics and deception?