3 ms·

Just goes to show that if you make the extra effort a lot of the time things will tend to work out. This guy was extremely prepared and didn't even need the inf

Just goes to show that if you make the extra effort a lot of the time things will tend to work out. This guy was extremely prepared and didn't even need the information that he gathered with an awesome day's worth of coding because the lawyers thought he wouldn't even show up! Nice work though. Hopefully all of the work he did will help someone else save some $$ too because he said that he posted the DB online.

lbrandy 17y ago
Here's an addendum to my story: I called my Dad, a lawyer, as I was walking out of the courthouse to brag that I was officially 1-0 in trial and planned on keeping it that way. I told him that I was upset all my preparation went to waste. He said it wasn't wasted, as you've said. Basically, in these types of areas... they just try to win the cases against the unprepared, and don't even bother with the people who are prepared. He said you'd be amazed how often that simply showing up prepared is sufficient to win without a fight. (he wasn't talking about tax assessment stuff in particular, just in general low-end legal stuff).
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Your dad is absolutely right. I've been in court 4 times to date, all of those business related. Each time we were prepared to the hilt. One party didn't show, we won that one by default. The second had his case fall apart on the first day because of our evidence. #3 and #4 (both in Germany) took a little longer but we also won those. For every one of those cases except for the 1st I'm pretty sure that it was our preparation that won the case, that plus the determination to see it through to the end. It helped that we were 'in the right' but that is definitely not always enough, you have to show that and you have to show it convincingly.
- fatdog789 17y ago
  The more prepared you are, the less likely you will go to try. I spent a week preparing to depose the opposing party -- 15 minutes before it started, he offered us close to what we sued for.
mariorz 17y ago
>Just goes to show that if you make the extra effort a lot of the time things will tend to work out. That makes no sense. His effort had no influence on how things worked out.
- scott_s 17y ago
  Not true. The lawyers probably assumed he was prepared because he showed up, and he showed up carrying 100 pages of something. If you're sitting on the best possible hand in Texas Hold 'Em, and you get your opponent to fold without ever having to show your hand, your hand had influence on how things worked out. Presumably, you wouldn't have been as confident and aggressive with your hand if it wasn't good. You could, of course, bluff, but that's a risk.
  - MaysonL 17y ago
    If you're sitting on the best possible hand in Texas Hold 'Em, and you get your opponent to fold without ever having to show your hand, your hand had influence on how things worked out. Presumably, you wouldn't have been as confident and aggressive with your hand if it wasn't good. If you have the best possible hand in Texas Hold'Em, and your opponent folds - he's the one who made the right move, not you.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - mariorz 17y ago
    You're assuming things that could be very well not be true. Maybe he would have gotten the same offer if he just showed up empty handed and maybe your imaginary poker player would have folded regardless of your aggressiveness. Believing the effort didn't all go to waste sure feels better though.
    - scott_s 17y ago
      Would you show up empty handed? I wouldn't. In general, I don't consider preparation wasted effort even if I don't need to call up the actual materials I prepared. If I was better at signaling preparation without actually doing so (read: bluffing), maybe that wouldn't be the case.

lbrandy 17y ago

Here's an addendum to my story: I called my Dad, a lawyer, as I was walking out of the courthouse to brag that I was officially 1-0 in trial and planned on keeping it that way. I told him that I was upset all my preparation went to waste. He said it wasn't wasted, as you've said. Basically, in these types of areas... they just try to win the cases against the unprepared, and don't even bother with the people who are prepared. He said you'd be amazed how often that simply showing up prepared is sufficient to win without a fight. (he wasn't talking about tax assessment stuff in particular, just in general low-end legal stuff).

jacquesm 17y ago
Your dad is absolutely right. I've been in court 4 times to date, all of those business related. Each time we were prepared to the hilt. One party didn't show, we won that one by default. The second had his case fall apart on the first day because of our evidence. #3 and #4 (both in Germany) took a little longer but we also won those. For every one of those cases except for the 1st I'm pretty sure that it was our preparation that won the case, that plus the determination to see it through to the end. It helped that we were 'in the right' but that is definitely not always enough, you have to show that and you have to show it convincingly.
fatdog789 17y ago
The more prepared you are, the less likely you will go to try. I spent a week preparing to depose the opposing party -- 15 minutes before it started, he offered us close to what we sued for.

mariorz 17y ago

>Just goes to show that if you make the extra effort a lot of the time things will tend to work out. That makes no sense. His effort had no influence on how things worked out.

scott_s 17y ago
Not true. The lawyers probably assumed he was prepared because he showed up, and he showed up carrying 100 pages of something. If you're sitting on the best possible hand in Texas Hold 'Em, and you get your opponent to fold without ever having to show your hand, your hand had influence on how things worked out. Presumably, you wouldn't have been as confident and aggressive with your hand if it wasn't good. You could, of course, bluff, but that's a risk.
- MaysonL 17y ago
  If you're sitting on the best possible hand in Texas Hold 'Em, and you get your opponent to fold without ever having to show your hand, your hand had influence on how things worked out. Presumably, you wouldn't have been as confident and aggressive with your hand if it wasn't good. If you have the best possible hand in Texas Hold'Em, and your opponent folds - he's the one who made the right move, not you.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- mariorz 17y ago
  You're assuming things that could be very well not be true. Maybe he would have gotten the same offer if he just showed up empty handed and maybe your imaginary poker player would have folded regardless of your aggressiveness. Believing the effort didn't all go to waste sure feels better though.
  - scott_s 17y ago
    Would you show up empty handed? I wouldn't. In general, I don't consider preparation wasted effort even if I don't need to call up the actual materials I prepared. If I was better at signaling preparation without actually doing so (read: bluffing), maybe that wouldn't be the case.