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About this quote

What does it mean?
When both sides lie knowingly, the interaction mirrors truth in its predictability.
In plain terms
Mutual lying can feel like honesty because everyone knows the rules.
What can you take from it?
Understand the hidden rules of deceptive interactions.

Where it applies

  • negotiations
  • conflict
  • diplomacy

Putting it to work

  • identify hidden agendas
  • read between lines

Questions to consider

  • Is lying ever better than truth?
  • How do you spot mutual deception?

Another view

True honesty is still preferable for trust.

More from Orson Scott Card

  1. Your trust in rationality makes you irrational. (Children of the Mind)

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  2. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth. -Ender's Game

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  3. (Regarding humans.) They never know anything. They don't have enough years in their little lives to come to an understanding of anything at all. And yet they t…

    Permalink to quote #1074

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