Brent Cullimore

First, let’s be clear: I’m not addressing political dysfunction. If that was your first reaction upon seeing this title, then compromising itself has come to have a negative connotation.

I know it sounds better in engineering to call a compromise a trade-off. That way it sounds like you’re getting something in exchange. Whereas compromise sounds like you’re settling … like you haven’t stuck to your principles or haven’t tried hard enough.