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I thought there were some very good tidbits in this post. I.e. if you are doing a deal, don't be surprised if only the immediate terms are honored. Don't bank

by Isamu 13y ago

I thought there were some very good tidbits in this post. I.e. if you are doing a deal, don't be surprised if only the immediate terms are honored. Don't bank on future promises. I like the example of Dave getting the "Architect" title as a result of a deal - but afterwards the meaning of the title was ignored. Nice bait and switch! Something to look out for in a deal, I would have fallen for that. Another example I hear about is: museum acquires a bequest of an art collection, but with some stipulation about how it is to be treated, kept intact, etc. Once the deal is done, the museum does what it likes. Now the museum may be squandering its capital in its reputation among potential patrons, but that's a calculation they make.

dragonwriter 13y ago
> I.e. if you are doing a deal, don't be surprised if only the immediate terms are honored. Don't bank on future promises. Dave himself admits that he felt like he had a disincentive to enforce the future promises due to what he had already received as a result of the more immediate terms -- a contract is, ultimately, not just a set of promises, but a set of promises that the parties feel need to be backed by the threat of legal action to ensure compliance. If, for any of those promises, you aren't going to be willing to act on that threat when they are violated, and the other party knows the incentive structure that makes you unwilling to act on the threat, well, then the threat is gone, and if you didn't need the threat to enforce the promises, you wouldn't have needed a contract in the first place. That doesn't really mean there is a difference between short-term and longer-term promises, it means that there is a difference between promises backed by the credible threat of legal action and promises not backed by the credible threat of legal action, which is rather the entire reason contracts exist in the first place.

by Isamu 13y ago

dragonwriter 13y ago

> I.e. if you are doing a deal, don't be surprised if only the immediate terms are honored. Don't bank on future promises. Dave himself admits that he felt like he had a disincentive to enforce the future promises due to what he had already received as a result of the more immediate terms -- a contract is, ultimately, not just a set of promises, but a set of promises that the parties feel need to be backed by the threat of legal action to ensure compliance. If, for any of those promises, you aren't going to be willing to act on that threat when they are violated, and the other party knows the incentive structure that makes you unwilling to act on the threat, well, then the threat is gone, and if you didn't need the threat to enforce the promises, you wouldn't have needed a contract in the first place. That doesn't really mean there is a difference between short-term and longer-term promises, it means that there is a difference between promises backed by the credible threat of legal action and promises not backed by the credible threat of legal action, which is rather the entire reason contracts exist in the first place.