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alexpotatoyesterday at 9:34 PM3 repliesview on HN

I'm always fascinated by these tricks of game theory.

e.g. in business school, the dean of the undergraduate school had this story:

"When I was a practicing lawyer working on wills and estates, people would often ask me to cut someone completely out of their will.

I would always say that a better option was to write something like 'To my daughter Susan, I leave $1,000. She always said that she wanted to be financially independent from me so this is an amount to show her I lover her.'

Clients would always think this would send the wrong message and I would replay:

'No, no. If Susan fights the will and says she should have gotten more, the judge will say: but she clearly left you something and pointed out that she loved you AND took your wishes into account' "

I wish there was a book or collection of these types of tricks to study.


Replies

keaneyesterday at 10:14 PM

There’s A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back by Bruce Schneier

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866667

arijunyesterday at 9:37 PM

Wait I thought standard practice was to leave $1 to show that they were considered and purposefully removed from the will? Does that fail in court?

show 1 reply
IncreasePostsyesterday at 9:46 PM

Multiple times in my life, a potential romantic interest asked how big my dick was, and I told them it was tiny. This led them to believe that it was large, because what guy who is tiny would say it was tiny?

Suffice to say they were a bit disappointed when expectations met reality