The Coke Machine Lesson
May 11, 2022
JERRY SEINFELD AND THE COKE MACHINE. Jerry Seinfeld said that breaking up is like knocking over a Coke machine. You don't do it with one big push. You keep rocking the thing a little at a time until it eventually goes down.
Same with persuasion.
You're not going to find a silver-bullet argument. Instead, come back over and over again with another small bit of persuasion. Let your opponent make the connections on their own. Over time, they just might, and it'll be more effective as well.
This is part of what I'm getting at when I say persuasion is not about reason or emotion alone. It's about how you think about yourself and each other. Persuasion occurs in the context of a relationship.
