There is one problem. You know for certain that the judge is cheating. Both slips say “death”. And the interesting part is that the judge does not know that you know it.
So: two slips. You cannot refuse. You cannot prove the deception. The judge is already savoring the ending. You have ten seconds. What do you do? Think harder...
Now imagine, calmly walke to the table, take one slip, and swallow it. The judge jumps up. “What have you done? How do we know which sentence you drew?” You answer calmly. “Very simply. Open the other slip. It has to be the opposite sentence.” The judge opens the remaining slip. It says “death”.
Now if the judge announces that it was death on the second slip too, he will have to admit in public that both slips were the same and the whole draw was a fraud. So, to protect his reputation, the judge is forced to declare you free.
Notice one important detail. You are not trying to win. You understand perfectly that winning is impossible, because the opponent controlls the game. Instead, you arranged it so that your victory was in the opponent’s own interest.
That is the clever part. In life and in business we keep trying to win by rules other people invented. We argue, we prove, we bargain, we look for the right option. Sometimes the right option simply does not exist. Then the task is not to pick the better of two bad options. It is to create a third one that was not there at all. An option that benefits you.
Remember this. When someone puts you in front of two choices, that does not mean no other choice exists. They may be offering you two ways to lose.
Here's the question: how many decisions in your life did you make only because someone convinced you that you had no other option?
