July 15, 2019

The Naval Podcast – Negotiations Are Won by Whoever Cares Less

Check out Naval’s Episode Page & Show Notes

This podcast clip is part of a conversation between Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. Unless otherwise noted, quotes are from Naval. For reference, check out Naval’s famous How to Get Rich tweet storm.

Key Takeaways

• Naval had a past tweet – “Negotiations are won by whoever cares less”
  • “Negotiation is about not wanting it too badly. If you want something too badly, the other person can extract more value from you.”
• If you do care more about something and someone is taking advantage of you in a negotiation then your best best is to turn it from a short-term game into a long-term game
  • Said another way – try to make it a repeat game (you’re converting a single-move game with a high probability of cheating on both sides into a multi-move game)
    • Ex.: If you’re negotiating with a contractor over the price of a home renovation, you might say – “Actually, I need two different projects done. The first project we’ll do together, and based on that I’ll decide if we do the second project.”
    • OR say – “I’m going to do this project with you, and I have three friends who want projects done who are waiting to see the outcome of this project.”