Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...

The first principle of negotiation is to always have a better option.

During this time, you won't be making any money, and the money you do make will probably be shitty because your clients will be the kind you find on craigslist that want you to build them "a facebook for X" in exchange for a sandwich. More importantly, all of this time will be time you didn't spend developing your startup.

1) The book that I've seen mentioned the most often in the area of negotiation is not actually directly on that topic. It is just a general book on "getting it your way" - Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people".

2) I am in NYC, there are local python-nyc and ruby-nyc user groups, and they get a decent amount of traffic with people asking for help on various projects, a lot full-time, but occasionally a part-time gig offer comes up. Research the equivalent in your area.

We do have a fair amount of leverage when it comes to negotiating severance pay, due to our knowledge of distributed architecture.

But yes, we're committed 150% to the startup. And submitted our YC application a few days ago :)

The best book on negotiation, bar none, is "Bargaining for Advantage : Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People" By Richard Shell. http://www.amazon.com/Bargaining-Advantage-Negotiation-Strat... (looks like it is out of print, but used copies seem cheap enough)

Freelancing to pay bills also turns out to be a big distraction. I'd recommend exploring other creative ways that don't take your focus off of your startup to pay (or avoid) your bills.

I've read it, it made sense to me, I've noticed a number of good negotiators doing things it suggests and my (admittedly few) negotiations I've done since have gone much better.

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-Negotiating-Agreement-With...

Negotiation is as much about non-verbal as it is verbal. So what's a good way to learn negotiation aside from watching "Lie to me" ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie_to_Me or "Hustle" ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustle_(TV_series) ? What about playing and learning poker?

In any sort of negotiation it helps if you can understand a) where the person you are negotiating with is coming from and b) what they are really thinking.This is where playing poker can help. To win you sometimes have to bluff (or lie) about your hand. People who are superior at understand and reading what others are thinking can use this to their advantage so try some books on psychology. A good start is understanding "cognitive bias" (how individual psychology can influence individual decisions) ~ http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Cognitive_bias

Another good reference ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman

Of course there can be a lot of difficult balancing required between freelancing and starting up, but many people make it work. The salesmanship, discipline, and customer relations skills you learn freelancing can certainly come in handy in a startup.

From my review: "I expected this book to be less scientific and less valuable than it turned out to be. Not one of those stupid motivational books, but rather a good theory source with real-life cases as illustrations.

Some of the chapters move you away from the major subject while trying to prove a point, and discuss things like, for example, delaying gratification studies or skills acquisition processes. These topics, however, are presented in a great scientific manner (well, maybe not a scientific, but at least authors are not bullshitting with you and consider you to be smart) and are supplied with data and good examples, so it's a pleasure to read (listen to) them.

I also think this book is a must-read for entrepreneurs, as they are the ones, who must influence people all the time and be good at it. And while they usually learn to do so by practicing, this book might provide a great deal of theory to start with."

I'm also listening to the other book by these authors now - it's called "Crucial Conversations", seems like it's really useful too.

Getting To Yes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_YES

And anything by Cialdini: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini

"Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Goldstein, Margin, & Cialdini is a great book on influence and persuasion.

Cialdini is a great resource for influence/negotiation in general, so look for other articles/books written by him.

"Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" by Ariely is a great book on behavioral economics

"Negotiation" by Lewicki, Saunders, and Barry

i know zackattack's comment got downvoted pretty badly, maybe because he was a bit too facetious in how he phrased it. but you do have some money saved up to last at least a few months, don't you?

edit: i'm not trying to be negative, i am very much for quitting to do your start up. but trying to learn how to negotiate seems like a bad sign. if anything, you should be focused on building something people want right now.

Why are you looking for books on negotiation? I don't have any other than the ones mentioned, but the first rule of negotiation is to pretend like you don't give a shit about the favorable outcome, then proceed from that premise and everything will be fine.

This is jacquesm's must read on consulting: http://jacquesmattheij.com/be-consultant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_YES