Life of (f)Utility: Hacking the Human Race

#1 negotiation principle + a simple request

First: Separate the problem from the person.

Then: Align yourself with the person, and attack the problem.

I heard this advice recently and I found that it actually goes hand-in-hand with my post on the Jedi mind trick. This technique is also sometimes phrased : “Go hard on the problem, and soft on the person.”

When you align yourself with someone, they put down their guard, which is the first and most important step. Once you allow them to objectively see that their is a real problem that you are both confronted with, you can more effectively work together to solve the problem.

Example

Don’t give instruction like this:

You: Go [insert some instruction here]!

Person: Go f** off!

Do this:

You: Hey, Bill. I need your help. We are potentially going to [insert bad result here]. I need you to [insert instruction here].

Bill: Go f** off!

You: Look, I know you are busy. I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it weren’t important. Our profit sharing could be affected by this. I need your help.

*** A simple request ***

I’m planning on doing some major overhauls to this website. I’m curious as to how many readers there are. Could you *please* e-mail me and tell me if you read this blog regularly? My e-mail address is blogrdoc_at_gmail dot com. The ultimate goal of this website will be to help house some of the poorest people in the world. I won’t go into detail now, but in time, all will be explained.

A little bit of explanation:

I am amazed at some of the fund generating projects online ( stevepavilina and milliondollarhomepage ) and I wonder why people don’t apply their creativity to address real problems in the world! Well I, for one, am going to try. At this very early phase (as any good scientist needs to do), I need to validate my data. Please send me an e-mail letting me know if you read this blog (blogrdoc _AT_ gmail dot com). Thanks!

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