All of intellectronica's Comments + Replies

It's hard to define what is inherently evil. Your definition (IIUC) includes all lying. I don't think I can agree to that. Everyone lies all the time, and most of these acts or lying couldn't be classified as evil.

Thanks a lot for the helpful feedback!

I completely agree that the risk is trying to invent magical information about the future by inferring from what we know in the present. The reason I find this format helpful (and hoped the reader will too) is that to me it highlights the absurdity of trying to make a prediction based on the limited, currently available information, and as a result I'm more likely to take a rational approach - starting with the base rate (rather than biasing on current information that is unlikely to be all that relevant for the future... (read more)

Consider the option that "negotiation" as a topic is a corporate fad. You hear a lot about it from the kind of people who try desperately to chase some kind of corporate game, but in practice, negotiation skills are not really that important in a work environment for the simple reason that these environments are by nature very cooperative. As long as you can get to clarity with people on what needs to be done, not much negotiation needs to happen. It's quite easy to spot the graduates of negotiation classes at work - they are the ones who waste everyone's time by practicing their negotiation jiu-jitsu moves when everyone else is just trying to agree on a project plan and get working. Maybe it's a virtue to not be one of these people.

1shenkev
I think this is the notion of "dark arts" in HPMOR. You don't necessarily become "one of those people" when you learn the tricks. You can choose not to employ them. But I feel like not everyone I meet will be cooperative and that's why it's handy to keep the "dark arts" in my back pocket when I encounter non-cooperative people.
49eB1
I second this. Most negotiation advice is geared toward formal "negotiation" settings, like when you are negotiating sales contracts or business transactions. For those purposes, having negotiation tools is really useful (my favorite is "Bargaining For Advantage" which I learned of from The Personal MBA). But for being a manager, you are almost never explicitly negotiating, and in fact trying to come into your work with that mindset is counterproductive. When you are working with your reports, it would be disastrous. When you are working with other internal teams, it's mostly about informal tit-for-tat kind of long-term favor trading or reputation building (or just getting to fundamental value for the business for both parties and moving forward based on that), not explicit negotiating. These aren't things that are taught under the term "negotiation."