Commercial motivations matter — smart parties try to play fair, because they realize they're likely to have to deal with the other side again, and because at so

Commercial motivations matter — smart parties try to play fair, because they realize they're likely to have to deal with the other side again, and because at some point they're likely to need a break themselves, whether from the other side or from some other party. That's especially true in garden-variety commercial contracts: Suppliers want repeat business, while customers want reliable suppliers who will go the extra mile when necessary, e.g., in a crunch. Neither of those is likely if you get a reputation as uncooperative. The nut graf of the NPR piece is this: "Business may be a game, Levine realized, but it's not a one-time game. It's more like an infinite game. It's a game in which people have to live with each other, work with each other again, and perhaps, write another big contract. ¶ The only time the words in a contract really matter, Levine says, is when things start to get ugly — like when people start suing each other."