“The thing that makes The Prince such a timeless and scandalous work,” explained Stacy Vanek Smith, “is the same exact thing, Machiavelli removes morality from the situation.”
Smith is out to talk about her book, Machiavelli for Women and the book’s seed came about when Smith was stuck on her salary. Rather, her salary disparity. In her first job out of college, Smith and two classmates both ended up at the same organization in roughly the same jobs. But, not with the same pay. Rather than plead her case, pound the table, and present data, “I was in an emotional spiral of unjustness and upset and I never asked for a raise.” Smith needed some unemotional advice.
“What Machiavelli does is remove all that. He would probably look at (the salary disparity) as great information to use. Now what’s the best way to go about getting a raise? What’s the best way to ask? What do I do now? That’s why it is timeless, because it’s so smart.” – Stacy Vanek Smith, September 2021
Good framing is a design choice that affects behavior. We can frame self talk by having multiple ‘jobs’. We can frame vaccines as better than being bulletproof. We can frame decisions by asking, would I want this even if it were free? Each prompt changes the reference point and possibly the behavior.
As needed then, maybe some people should be Machiavelli Bayesians. Be slightly more princely, if that works do it again until it doesn’t.
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The Waiter's Pad 