Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

by Chris Voss

Answering my calibrated questions demanded deep emotional strengths and tactical psychological insights

and Kahneman won a Nobel Prize—by showing that man is a very irrational beast.

We react emotionally (System 1) to a suggestion or question. Then that System 1 reaction informs and in effect creates the System 2 answer.

In this world, you get what you ask for; you just have to ask correctly. So claim your prerogative to ask for what you think is right.

Which, by the way, is one of the reasons that really smart people often have trouble being negotiators—they’re so smart they think they don’t have anything to discover.

Too often people find it easier just to stick with what they believe. Using what they’ve heard or their own biases, they often make assumptions about others even before meeting

There’s plenty of research that now validates the passage of time as one of the most important tools for a negotiator.