Great point. I usually prepare for a negotiation by preparing myself to walk away, reminding myself of all benefits of this particular deal not going through, and borderline ignoring all the downsides. When SN did its seed round, I remember going into it thinking "I don't need this money, if I don't get it I will go into personal financial hibernation and make it work until I'm worthy of the raise."

This sounds like how I've felt in salary negotiations. There's a huge information asymmetry, but as I can almost call myself an employer now, I was overthinking it. The biggest risk for an honest employer is paying someone more than the value they provide, going broke betting on someone or many people (if a large org) that don't deliver. So, theoretically, if I were to go back, I'd probably seek to arm myself with what my colleagues are paid, and think clearly about the relative value I was providing, then arrive at a fair price for myself and prepare to walkaway if I didn't get it.

(In the past, I mostly dealt with negotiations by convincing myself to walkaway, then making absurd asks. While it was effective on the few occasions I did it, the outcome was super unpredictable.)