CHAPTER 13

Misdirection

Straw Man

A straw man is where the other party will make one or more demands that they say are very important to them, but which, in fact, are not really so important. The idea is to have you make concessions in areas that are really important to them, in return for which they give up their straw men.

This tactic will only work if their demands are for something that is either difficult or impossible for you to agree to. If their demand is for something that is very easy for you to agree to, it will look to you like the makings of what we call an asymmetrical trade, something that is high value to them and low cost to you. (This tactic is covered in greater detail later on.)

However, if what is being demanded is difficult ...

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