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Of course. I long developed that inner rule: whenever i am going to execute any business transaction and know i will not feel guilty as a result, i am going to
by anovikov 7y ago
Of course. I long developed that inner rule: whenever i am going to execute any business transaction and know i will not feel guilty as a result, i am going to be taken advantage of and should not do it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- JoshTriplett 7y agoThat assumes zero-sum, and one-time transactions. Two parties can have a transaction where both go away happy, neither was taken advantage of, and both would like to do it again. If you push to have a transaction that's to your advantage, you might get one, and you might also make someone less inclined to do business with you again.
- anovikov 7y agoNot really! It even pertains to long-term relationship. If you are not hard enough on your clients, they perceive you as cheap labor. And you become cheap labor.
- JoshTriplett 7y agoI'm not suggesting letting yourself get cheated. I'm suggesting not pushing so hard that the person you're dealing with feels cheated, either. You shouldn't feel guilty about making a good deal, and neither should the person you're dealing with.
- nathan_long 7y ago"Always violate your conscience" does not sound like good advice. Maybe you're working on the assumption that you "feel guilty" about deals that are actually fair? Besides which, economics is all based on the fact that two parties in a trade can both win because they want different things. Eg, you have a surplus of oranges, I have a surplus of apples. I value my first apple highly (I like apples!) but my ten thousandth apple is nearly worthless to me. I'd happily trade that last apple for a tenth of an orange. And you'd gladly trade your last orange for a tenth of an apple. We trade some of our fruit 1:1 and we both got a deal 10x better than what we'd accept.