, Columnist
Imaginary Art Seller Drove a Hard Bargain
Also OpenAI governance lessons, Carta, romantic insider trading and buying shareholder votes.
In negotiations, it is often helpful to have someone else, some “absent principal,” to blame for your position. You go to a car dealership, the salesperson says “this car costs $25,000,” you say “I want to pay $21,000,” she says “I like you, I want you in this car, but my boss won’t let me go lower than $24,000,” you say “$22,000,” she says “I really want this to work out, let me check with my boss,” she goes into the break room and watches TikToks on her phone for five minutes, she comes back and says “my boss is really mad at me but I talked him down to $23,500.”
The boss is a crutch, an excuse. The salesperson