You're excluding the middle. There's a third path, which is for the smart people whose goals conflict to listen to each other, have a discussion, and find some

You're excluding the middle. There's a third path, which is for the smart people whose goals conflict to listen to each other, have a discussion, and find some compromise solution. This, of course, takes a lot of effort and interpersonal skill, which is not something that we coders are often gifted with.