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Comment by Adrock | Hacker News Reader

The author seems to be recommending that you present as a doormat. You're exposing your jugular as a sign of trust, similar to the practice of shaking our right (weapon) hands as a greeting. If the other party is going to try to take advantage of you in this situation, walk away. You've now seen how they'll behave when they think you're in a weak position.

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This only works if you are actually in a strong negotiating position (you have or can get equivalent/better offers elsewhere), but you are willing to pretend to put yourself in a weak one, to test the other party's good faith. Risky. If you expose your jugular, you might establish trust, but you also might get your throat slashed.

Or, psychologically speaking, it puts you in a strong position.

Think about poker. Do you really know the other player knows all your cards when he/she bluffs?

That's a really good point. Often, the best way to get a sense of someone's character is to see that person in a stronger position.

As a long-term career strategy, it's a bad one, but that's not what the OP is talking about.

It works fine as a long-term career strategy as long as you always have a strong BATNA. If you can walk whenever anyone betrays your trust, then eventually you'll end up surrounded only by people you can trust. That's a very strong position to be in, and usually makes for both a happy life and a solid professional outcome.

> similar to the practice of shaking our right (weapon) hands as a greeting

Being a lefty makes that gesture very meaningless.

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