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Extreme Contracts Podcast

Extreme Contracts Podcast

Written by: Jacopo Romei
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What if the most effective negotiation tactic is to stop negotiating?

Extreme Contracts is a podcast for developers, designers, consultants, and anyone who makes a living with their ideas. Drawing on the framework created by Jacopo Romei, each episode digs into a different dimension of how knowledge workers can ditch the toxic defaults — haggling over rates, bloated legalese, zero-sum standoffs — and build agreements rooted in trust, aligned incentives, and shared skin in the game.

Through real-world stories and hands-on tactics, we dismantle how deals are made and rebuild them from the ground up.© Jacopo Romei 2026 Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • 10 — Extreme Contracts, B*llshit Jobs, and Bureucracy — Why Your Job Feels So Pointless

    10 — Extreme Contracts, B*llshit Jobs, and Bureucracy — Why Your Job Feels So Pointless
    Mar 28 2026
    If you've ever sat at your desk wondering whether your job actually needs to exist, you're not alone — and you're not wrong. A UK poll found that nearly 40% of full-time workers feel exactly the same way.

    This episode brings together two unlikely allies: anthropologist David Graeber, whose work on bullshit jobs and bureaucratic systems revealed the hidden feudal logic of the modern office, and Jacopo Romei, whose Extreme Contracts framework offers a practical way out.

    Together, they help us understand why knowledge work is still governed by 19th-century industrial rules — from the theological roots of "time equals virtue" to the structural risk trap of selling hours instead of outcomes.

    The second half is all agency. We walk through BATNA mapping, identifying the real decision-makers (Talk to the Grinder), reframing your contributions around impact, and proposing low-risk experiments to expand your autonomy one project at a time. No desk-flipping required — just a clearer view of the game and better tools to play it.

    Extreme Contracts is a framework for negotiation and collaboration in knowledge work, by Jacopo Romei.

    Learn more: extremecontracts.com
    About Jacopo: jacoporomei.com

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
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    51 mins
  • 09 — BATNA — A Debate

    09 — BATNA — A Debate
    Mar 28 2026
    What happens when two hosts disagree on where negotiation power actually comes from? This episode is a structured debate on BATNA — your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement — and the question of whether it works as an internal shield against your own psychological traps or as an external lever to reshape your counterpart's options.

    Drawing on Martin Shubik's dollar auction, Nassim Taleb's writing on freedom and optionality, and real cases from Italian publishing and agile software consulting, the conversation unpacks how knowledge workers can stop overbidding in negotiations they can't afford to win — and start structuring agreements they don't need to escape.

    Extreme Contracts is a framework for negotiation and collaboration in knowledge work, by Jacopo Romei.

    Learn more: extremecontracts.com
    About Jacopo: jacoporomei.com

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
    Show More Show Less
    21 mins
  • 08 — Optionality Principle — Why Your Projects Need Save Points

    08 — Optionality Principle — Why Your Projects Need Save Points
    Mar 27 2026
    What if the smartest move in any negotiation isn't committing to a plan — but deliberately keeping your options open?

    In this episode, we unpack optionality: the principle that says strategically delaying your decisions beats trying to predict the future every single time.

    We dig into why fixed-price contracts are structurally identical to Russian roulette, what Nassim Taleb means when he calls optionality "a substitute for intelligence," and how real teams — from a software company offering weekly money-back guarantees to an a cappella group that crowdfunded their audience before booking a venue — are rewriting the rules of collaboration.

    You'll walk away with three concrete actions you can take tomorrow: map your BATNA, trade options instead of discounts, and find the one irreversible decision you can safely delay.

    Extreme Contracts is a framework for negotiation and collaboration in knowledge work, by Jacopo Romei.

    Learn more: extremecontracts.com
    About Jacopo: jacoporomei.com

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
    Show More Show Less
    49 mins
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