The two negotiation muscles most people never build

I had a conversation with Aryeh Sheinbein this week that I want to share the meat of, because it changed how I'm approaching two real financial situations on my desk this month. The opener: do you actually think everything is negotiable? Aryeh's answer was yes, most of it. My honest answer was that for most of my life, negotiating didn't even dawn on me as an option. I read "non-refundable" and accepted it. I read "this is the price" and accepted it. And I think most of you reading this are...