First Principles: Negotiation

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a junkie for lists; I am somewhat of a lister myself. Some time ago, I realised that some politicians make clearly defined lists of interesting points which they claim to use. Some of these lists are particularly useful to think about.

Here is a list from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, taken from his book, Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life (pages 363-365), on negotiation:

Richardson's Rules
• Share the credit. Politics and diplomacy are team sports. Acknowledge it.
• Be discreet and don't volunteer too much information.
• Your style can be informal, but you must show proper respect.
• Remember who your friends were when things weren't going so well.
• Aim big. Always try to achieve more than you have to.
• When you're about to make a major change, cover your bases.
• It helps to be in good shape. You never know when you're going to be called to the negotiating table.
• Deliver a strong message with dignity and without insults.
• Never lie when negotiating, because lies catch up with you. Be direct.
• Use the media if you need to, but keep your negotiations private.
• Have others deliver bad news; it keeps you viable as a future negotiator.
• In most meetings, the law of diminishing returns kicks in after five minutes.

=====

Very useful rules indeed. I have also begun to look at Senator Barack Obama's speeches. He is good at identifying key points in very large discussion frameworks.

The Icelandic Dairy Meme Deploys...

Here are my ten top flavours, in no particular order. I am going to be descriptive rather than prescriptive; that is, I will describe the flavours rather than name them (in case I open myself to intellectual property lawsuits and such).

1. True Chocolate: Dark chocolate ice cream with broken bits of 85% cacao dark chocolate bars, swirled with chocolate fudge. You know who you are, my darling. And after a serving, I forget who I am.

2. Burnt Vanilla: Madagascar vanilla pods have been sacrificed to give this amber-glazed ice-cream the true fragrance of excellence. Through it all runs the slightly burnt and fleeting aftertaste of caramel – or is that butterscotch?

3. Pineapple Tart: I remember my grandmother making pineapple jam around the Lunar New Year season. I would help her stir the brown paste, redolent with sweet odour and heavily textured. And then we would put a spoonful of it on little tart bases. Now you can have it all, broken up and mixed with a plain vanilla base. Where? When? The secret is known to a few.

4. Plutonium Doom: Blue curaçao twirls brittle flame through something which would have been yellow-brown pistachio gelato in another universe. Silver streaks of glazed lightning, sweet and slightly lemony, strike through what looks like a Time Vortex. You can almost hear the Doctor Who theme song.

5. Dark Cherry: If this cold equivalent of a Black Forest mousse cake were a lady, she'd be tall and dark with magenta eyes. In the bitterness, the taste of kirsch and the memories of distant sweetness hidden in an epic romance.

6. Rum & Raisin: You can taste Jamaica here; the proper R&R is the alluring colour of a summer beach, studded with soft raisins, fruit pickled in rum. And the rum has begun to escape into the velvet softness of vanilla...

7. Chendol: There's only one place here where it's done right. Frozen coconut milk writhes in grinning ecstasy with soft green tendrils of something chewy. The light touch of deep and seductive brown sugar (gula melaka) syrup sets a slow fire going. The pale brown stuff melts unevenly in your mouth, different each time.

8. Something Caffeinated: Many places serve a coffee gelato. The one I have in mind was so dark I thought it was chocolate at first; it turned out to be dark-roasted Costa Rican beans, their essence fused and folded through four-dimensional space in a matrix of slightly milky memories.

9. Gianduja: This too is chocolate, but it couldn't be more different from the rest. The difference is in what has been blended into it. Half of that is hazelnut paste, warm to the tongue and with the possibility of crunch; the other half is almond, sinister in its proclivities but willing to chat.

10. Zabaglione: Yes, this is the classical sabayon; cream, the yellowness of egg-yolks, simmered Marsala wine and a thin honey glaze. Every tongueful tingles, and who would be so crass as to take it in mouthfuls?

=====

There! And I shall tag the following people: the Dancer (well, any other dancers are welcome too), Aristoitle (and you might as well share it with your two good co-bloggers), and Melancholy (who has much free time on her hands – err, legs).

To-Do List

Eeeergh. This is horrible. You dig around in old papers wondering what on earth you kept them for, and then lo! and behold! you encounter a list. And what a list it is. It is a list of all the things you wanted to do when you were 15 years old, had just turned 15, and were wondering what you should do before Father Time got his filthy hooks into you – i.e. by the time you became old at 30.

=====

1. Become a teacher: will need a major discipline (Lit? Chem?) and work on core skills (computer assembly, programming and protocols; psychology and communication) - forget the other subjects unless Mrs T complains again - can I do Law first, or must I have teaching subject to do education?

2. Life skills: learn to cook, at least good if not tasty; learn to repair clothes; keep on with the carpentry and woodwork - is it worthwhile learning to renovate a house, or just a garden enough (note: cultivate brother) - and how to survive in foreign cities without being foreigner?

3. Get some money: don't count on family fortune (not so big anyway), estimate seed size; if teacher, how survive - unique means premium - what about UN job, and what power can you have without money?

4. Self-fulfilment: get some proper writing done, publish SF/fantasy bits - maybe poetry - learn some Greek, Latin and Hebrew for bible study - also see (1) above - figure out gifts and how to deal with bad parts (arrogant idiot, angry and stubborn ass).

5. Get married: target for 10 years' time; start database, decide what parameters - need objective monitoring else things go wrong - start a new list?

=====

Well, we were all younger once. I am, once again, humbled by what I wrote and what I actually achieved. As God wills, so does He dispose. And all we can do is wonder at the things we are allowed to do.