Comments on: Get more of what you want

By: Peter Strømberg

Peter Strømberg — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:03:33 +0000

Great post. Great blog in fact, a new found gem for me

Our family used to use the “you cut, I choose” method, even when dividing a cake between 6. If the ‘cutter’ get’s the last piece, and it’s chocolate cake you can be sure the slices are equal down to the nearest atomic particle. As a bonus the method also sharpens the geometry skills.

As a side note, my sister got ridiculed at university when explaining the method, when she suggested “You cut and I’ll take the big half”, which her uni chums thought hilarious as how can you have a ‘big half”. I don’t recall if they were maths majors, but I always thought it was a bit harsh. She’s since employed the more proper “largest piece”.

By: Mel

Mel — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:36:20 +0000

@Colin: We used the one cuts/one chooses idea all the time as kids (Although there were 3 of us, I don’t remember quite how it worked). Not once did the scenario you mentioned come up – but I imagine that if it did, the drool would be fairly happily ignored. Even just for the fun of seeing the ‘outsmarting’ kid be outsmarted!

By: Colin Mackay

Colin Mackay — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:45:18 +0000

So what do you do if the child splits the cake in two unequal pieces and while cutting accidentally (on purpose) drools over the larger piece, thus rendering it undesirable to the other child?

By: hoss

hoss — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:14:54 +0000

@Phil that’s a very important aspect of successful negotiation – finding additional variables. Take a salary negotiation for example. The simplest way to avoid it turning into haggling is to add holiday leave, performance bonuses, and health care to the mix.

By: hoss

hoss — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:09:58 +0000

@Rich when I’m indecisive about anything, especially important decisions, I always toss a coin to decide. I don’t always go with the result of the toin coss but it does polarise my opinion allowing me to make a decision.

By: Phil Adams

Phil Adams — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:04:44 +0000

Nice post Hoss. The negotiation skills course I went on over a decade ago was one of the best bits of training I ever had. Both parties feeling that they’ve done well out of the negotiation was hammered home to us as the only worthwhile definition of success.

It also emphasised the importance of introducing multiple variables. A single variable negotiation isn’t a negotiation at all – it’s haggling.

By: Defmech

Defmech — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:19:26 +0000

The “you cut, I choose” methodology has been used in our family for as long as I can remember. Never though of applying it to actual negotiations though.

By: Rich Shupe

Rich Shupe — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:06:50 +0000

Hoss, this is great, and I couldn’t agree more. I use my BATNA every day. It’s also a great way to get indecisive people to commit to a choice.