A review by sarahweyand
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Tahl Raz, Chris Voss
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
Let's get things straight: I am NOT a business book girlie. I think lots, if not most, business/leadership/communications books are farces written by privileged, white, middle-aged men to get you to buy a book full of information you could have found online for free, and that's how they make their money.
On the other hand, this is kinda good.
The key to this book is that it's part FBI storytelling, part negotiation advice. Learning about the hostage negotiation tactics Voss used and different scenarios in which he applied them was fascinating. By far my favorite aspect of the book. I also wish it was the only part.
This book is also, literally, Manipulation Tactics 101. That's cool if you're a hostage negotiator and sharing your stories about life-or-death situations, but it becomes more uncomfortable when you start thinking about applying these tactics to literally anyone else. I'm also a confrontation-avoidant introvert that doesn't get off on haggling with a used car salesperson for hours, so maybe this book wasn't written for me. Serves me right for picking up a business book when I guess what I wanted was a memoir.
Maybe I'll try some of the more tame tactics here with people I'll never see again and don't care about, but most seem too overly asshole-ish to implement in public. Also I'm a woman, and no matter how assertive I am, there are men who never take me seriously anyway. I want to like this book so bad, but it doesn't have enough of the juicy stuff in it.
On the other hand, this is kinda good.
The key to this book is that it's part FBI storytelling, part negotiation advice. Learning about the hostage negotiation tactics Voss used and different scenarios in which he applied them was fascinating. By far my favorite aspect of the book. I also wish it was the only part.
This book is also, literally, Manipulation Tactics 101. That's cool if you're a hostage negotiator and sharing your stories about life-or-death situations, but it becomes more uncomfortable when you start thinking about applying these tactics to literally anyone else. I'm also a confrontation-avoidant introvert that doesn't get off on haggling with a used car salesperson for hours, so maybe this book wasn't written for me. Serves me right for picking up a business book when I guess what I wanted was a memoir.
Maybe I'll try some of the more tame tactics here with people I'll never see again and don't care about, but most seem too overly asshole-ish to implement in public. Also I'm a woman, and no matter how assertive I am, there are men who never take me seriously anyway. I want to like this book so bad, but it doesn't have enough of the juicy stuff in it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder