Shane Black Quotes

Part of the job of being a producer is the Vulcan mind meld, where you listen not to what they're saying but what they mean.

I'm a transactional lawyer, which involves a lot of negotiation. If nothing else, that's given me a good eye for human motivation and frequent case studies in peculiar psychological quirks. I think that's served me fairly well as a writer.

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.

The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isn't really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, but anyone who wants to be at least competent at argument can do it.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.

You cannot just dictate at negotiations. You must also listen.

Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one's ability to persuade.

My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument."

I taught my executive team how to argue.

Peyton's pretty good at figuring stuff out.

I learned how to defend myself at the OSB, not physically but with words.

Leadership requires the ability to engage and to create empathy for communities with disparate needs and ideas. Telling an effective story - especially in romantic suspense - demands a similar skill set.

People are governed by the head; a kind heart is of little value in chess.

Give them your brains, girl, never your guts.

Great negotiators never lose sight of what they are aiming at, which is not an agreement per se, but a desired outcome....Getting to yes is easy, all you have to do is roll over. It's getting what you want that's hard.

Since when was an emotional argument won by logic?

One of the things I love about negotiations is that you have to be able to play it like an orchestra, different instruments for different circumstances. There's sweetness, and encouragement, and cajoling. There's pressure, there's drama, there's ultimatums.

Additional problems are the offspring of poor decisions. When inquiry and advocacy are combined, the goal is no longer 'to win the argument', but to find the best argument.

Games sometimes require lateral thinking. They sometimes require quite skilled hand-eye coordination and so on. But they're not in any sense intelligent in the way that you want your children to develop intelligence to make the mind not just supple, but actually informed.

People who think well, write well

How can you have a reasonable debate with people who are constantly changing the panic? They are moving the panic to a greater wave of hysteria?

We must learn to outgrow our egos in exchange for constructive dialogue rather than debate. In addition, we must be capable of stating problems and proposing solutions clearly and succinctly, without distortion of meaning or misunderstanding, even when these solutions are radically opposed to accepted norms.

I think the most important thing is to, without belligerence, stand up for what want. Argue compellingly if someone tries to change your script.

If you want to "get in touch with your feelings," fine, talk to yourself. We all do. But if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order, give them a purpose, use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down, and then cut out the confusing parts.