One of the things we touched on last week, was the power of questions to change the frame.
This week, let’s go a little broader (and deeper). Let’s talk about how changing the frame is itself a superpower. A superpower you can trigger, like a wizard’s spell, with just the right words.
1. Say the magic words, and the door will open.
"I think I've been in the top five percent of my age cohort almost all my adult life in understanding the power of incentives. And yet I've always underestimated that power.
Never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes a little further my appreciation of incentive superpower."
- Charlie Munger
I feel this way about the power of words. The power of framing. About how with the right words, you can bend reality.
But a man who prays even while he smokes is a pious, devout soul.
Another example:
Let's say you're considering an important but risky operation, and the doctor says this:
"Of 100 who completed this operation, 95 were alive after five years."
What's the likelihood of you saying yes to the operation? Write it down.
Now, what if the doctor says this instead:
"Of 100 who underwent this surgery, 5 were dead after five years."
What's the likelihood now?
Framing is less about words alone, and more about setting the context.
I read this golden nugget from Rory Sutherland (via George Mack) the other day:
As I like to say, "The context is 90% of the sale."
Choose the right context, and you don't have to sell much. The customers will sell themselves!
Let's look at some more examples of framing in action: How do we use it to our advantage? And almost as important, how do we protect ourselves from "black-hat" framing tricks?
Framing in Action.
In Pricing.
What works for Rolls-Royce works for SaaS too.
This is another great example of context driving a sale, from Khadim Batti of Whatfix:
Frame your offer in the right context, and you can price up 10x. Just like that. Skadoosh.
A small buzzer (the kind you use when you play Taboo): maybe INR 25 (USD 0.30). You can buy a pack of 5 at the dollar store.
A doll that plays music, for your 2 year old: INR 100 if you don't care about the brand.
A device that makes a sound each time you get paid: INR 300 setup and a monthly fee of INR 125 AND silently thanking the provider each time it beeps. Kaching!
In a way, you're paying for almost the same thing in all three cases. A speaker that takes some input and makes a single sound.
In another way though, these are entirely different products!
…
Whenever a customer makes a payment, this box makes a loud sound. You might find it annoying. But for the retailer, it's the beautiful and definitive clink of money coming in.
Three million merchants use Soundbox today.
Paytm makes an annual revenue of INR 400 cr. (USD 70M+), from this small box that makes a sound every time you receive a payment.
Remember: The right framing can bend reality.
❌ "We charge 10K / month, because that's our server cost + margins."
✅ "We charge 100K / month, because you'll save 300K."
In The #1 mistake we're all making, I wrote about how Segment.io (acquired by Twilio for USD 3.2Bn earlier this year) went through this exact journey. A fascinating example of how the right framing can 2000x your pricing (not a typo).
In Negotiation.
There's a saying among negotiators: If I set the terms and you set the price, I win.
Weak negotiator: "I must be reasonable. What if they walk away!?"
Strong negotiator: "What do I want? And how do I make that look reasonable?"
Every negotiation has 20 different sub-negotiations going on. An M&A deal is a negotiation on price, integration, roles of people, skin in the game, and even some ego massaging.
Let's say you're the buyer. On each one of these, you can change the frame to make your ask reasonable.
Price: Use the right benchmarks that show why this is a great price.
Skin in the Game: Sell them the upside. The hundreds of millions they'll make.
Massage the Ego: So, would you prefer to be on the cover of TIME this month or next month?
What if nothing works? What if your interlocutor isn't budging at all, refusing to see reason, or being plain stubborn?
If all else fails, re-frame the overall goal itself. Ask a simple question:
"Imagine a situation in which you're able to say 'yes'. What would that world look like?"
PS. Never Split the Difference is a GREAT book on negotiation, and it goes into tremendous detail on this question of framing. I’ve published my notes on Notion here, but also check out the book!
The right question is like a password to get into the innards of your brain, and tweak your feelings directly.
Why does this work? Because it changes the frame!
Moving further back, every difficult situation is an opportunity to reframe.
Here's another example from Jim Simons, the founder of Renaissance Technologies, the most successful hedge fund ever.
As a teenager looking to earn some bucks, Jim had joined a local retail store. The owners asked Jim to walk the store’s narrow aisles and sweep its hardwood floors. A mindless and repetitive task.
But to Jimmy:
The demotion felt like a stroke of luck.
Finally, he was left alone to ponder what mattered most in his life. Math. Girls. The future.
"They’re paying me to think!"
One of the most powerful reframes I've found is this old Marcus Aurelius saying, "The obstacle is the way".
Whenever you're facing a particularly hard time, remember:
It's an opportunity to show that you're not messing around. You will push through and get it done.
You're like that badass in the gym who, when the reps get tough and your muscles start to burn, you go even slower. Your form becomes even more perfect. You savor the pain.
Where others see a wall and think, "It's too high, I can't climb," you smirk and think, "Challenge accepted."
When the world screams at you to stop, to give up, to relent, you roar back with unyielding determination, "This might break others, but it won't break me." You don't just push through; you bulldoze your way forward.
Let me pause and ask you a question: How did reading that make you feel?
Why did it make you feel that way?
Beware of being framed!
What I've written so far is about using framing to win. But remember, other people are going to use it too! And there are plenty of "black-hat" tactics. How do you not fall prey to them?
Hold that question.
Before I answer, let me go into one particularly nefarious tactic:
There's a term in the debating world, called "Russell's Conjugation". It shows how you can use words to generate emotions, independent of the meaning of the words themselves.
In simpler terms, you can use loaded words to persuade the listener in the direction you want.
Some examples from Bertrand Russell, after whom it is named (via Wikipedia):
I am firm, you are obstinate, he is a pig-headed fool.
I am righteously indignant, you are annoyed, he is making a fuss over nothing.
I have reconsidered the matter, you have changed your mind, he has gone back on his word.
Eric Weinstein gives a few more examples in Edge.org:
The very same person will oppose a “death tax” while having supported an “estate tax” seconds earlier, even though these taxes are two descriptions of the exact same underlying object.
... such is the power of emotive conjugation that we are generally not even aware that we hold such contradictory opinions.
Thus “illegal aliens” and “undocumented immigrants” may be the same people, but the former label leads to calls for deportation while the latter one instantly causes many of us to consider amnesty programs and paths to citizenship.
The key learning here is:
Words don't just have meanings.
Words don't just have meanings. They also have emotions attached to them. And by choosing the right "synonym", you can incept a different idea in the listener's mind.
How was this relevant to Chernobyl? Back to that article:
"Nuclear meltdown" is a compelling visual metaphor. You think of a building dissolving into lava, making a town uninhabitable forever.
The reality, however, is far more humdrum.
But that's the point: once you have a simple, powerful idea, that's what spreads.
That's what journalists report, as they try to sensationalize with colorful language.
That's what you remember, as the image of a melting building plonks itself in your head. Soon, no one can dislodge it.
Facts cannot defeat a powerful, viral story.
Let me paint you another picture:
We're all gathered around a fire, and a raconteur is narrating a tale of epic adventure.
Halfway through, there's a scene where a wise old man sends his son into battle. He says, "My boy, take this. Go to battle now, with the sword of destiny."
What happens next? Take 5 seconds to guess.
.
.
.
.
.
Well, this is what happens next.
Is it a narrative violation? Or a clever choice of words?
And the most dangerous way to use words is... to use analogies.
Analogies are especially powerful. They can completely change your frame of reference.
Scott Adams had a great 2016 article on this (before he went off the rails), called Bumper Sticker Thinking.
From the article:
People see patterns where there are none.
… Analogies are not a useful component of reason in the way most people believe they are. Just because something reminds you of something does not mean there is causation. Analogies are not about causation.
Analogies are great tools for explaining new things for the first time, and that is about all they are good for. For example, the game laser tag is like a real gunfight except with toy guns that have harmless lasers instead of bullets. That analogy saved me a lot of time explaining something new. But that is ALL it did.
The gunfight analogy has no predictive power beyond that. I can’t, for example, assume people will die playing laser tag because they die during real gun fights.
Analogies are for explaining, not predicting. Analogies are not part of logic or reason.
Analogies seem so persuasive.
And yet, they're - by definition! - not talking about the same thing at all.
Take the current discourse on AI and x-risk for example.
Now, there are some VERY smart people on both sides of this critical question. But for the rest of us - any opinion we have - was likely planted in our head by an analogy.
If you think of The Matrix, then it brings to mind robot armies marching against humans. AI is a diabolical adversary, whom we have to fight. It's a life or death battle.
But if you read a lot of optimistic sci fi (like the Culture series of Iain M. Banks), then AI is a tool to help us win. AI is a tool to create a glorious future for ourselves.
OK, back to the question: How do you protect yourself from this?
In ancient, more magical times, there was a saying: If you call an evil spirit by its name, its spell will be broken.
So it is with modern magic as well. To inoculate yourself against a mind-virus, you must learn to recognize it.
I tweeted this last week, only half in jest:
Telemarketer: "Sir, we have this exciting webinar on artificial..."
Me (cutting them off): "Sorry, I don't have time for a webinar."
Them: "Ah I understand. Never Mind. We also have an Online Bootcamp running next month..."
Me: "Sign me up!"
Only half in jest. The other half was to train myself to see when someone is doing this to me.
So learn to ask yourself these questions often:
"Hmm, why did this person use these specific powerful words?"
"Wow, that's a great analogy! But wait a minute... am I drawing a conclusion from the analogy, rather than the issue itself?"
Name the trick, and dispel the enchantment.
Before we continue, a quick note:
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2. Chart of the Week.
The AI Singularity might not be here yet, but it's not far!
“Well,” I thought to myself as I read this chart, “If AI takes away all our jobs, will we be doing captchas all day?”
Nope, spoke too soon!
Turns out AI bots are now much better than humans at solving captchas too!
AI bots are better than humans at deciphering CAPTCHAs, the security tests used to differentiate humans from machines on websites.
According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California, Microsoft, and others, AI bots have an accuracy rate of 85-100% in solving CAPTCHAs, significantly outpacing human accuracy which ranges between 50-85%.
3. Golden Nugget of the week.
I read this article from Jim Nielsen a couple of weeks ago, and I can't stop thinking about it:
1 in 5 people currently have a disability. 100% of people will have some form of disability in their lifetime.
Good reminder to be thankful for the time we have, and for our good health. As long as we have it.
4. I’m still laughing at this 🤣
How it feels to listen to podcasts:
That’s it for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.
As always, stay safe, healthy and sane, wherever you are.
I’ll see you next week.
Jitha
[A quick request - if you liked today’s newsletter, I’d appreciate it very much if you could forward it to one other person who might find it useful 🙏].
