Non • Zero • Sum James

We join Diderot, a very bright man made a fool by circumstance, to introduce an essential idea in understanding economics and non-zero-sum games—the issue of relative vs absolute gains.

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For the original post, including links and references visit: https://nonzerosum.games/absolutevsrelative.html

Ever noticed that the first slice of pizza is always the best and each slice afterwards never quite matches up? Well, welcome to The Law of Diminishing Returns.

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For links and more info: https://nonzerosum.games/diminishingreturns.html

Every Friday our family settles in for family movie night—it's the highlight of the week, especially for the person who's "turn" it is—my wife, daughter and I take turns sharing a movie we love. Our eventual decision to take turns reflects the conclusions of game theory's... The Battle of the Sexes.

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To continue exploring check out the main page: https://nonzerosum.games/battleofthesexes.html

Inspired by a recent trip to Tanzania, I couldn't help see game theory in action.

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For links and pics: https://nonzerosum.games/chicken.html

Take-it-or-leave-it.

In this game, you are given $10. To keep the money, you have to give a portion of this $10 away to another player. If we take the contained, rational and self-interested assumptions of game theory, the dominant strategy is simple: give the other player as little as possible. The catch is, if the other player rejects your offer, you both get nothing.

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For all the links, pictures and payoff matrices visit: https://nonzerosum.games/ultimatumgame.html

Dealing with public goods, free riders and exploitation.

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For links, pics and to join the discussion: https://nonzerosum.games/socialdilemmas.html

Two hunters can cooperate to catch a stag (a difficult but highly rewarding prize) or each can safely hunt a hare (a lower-value but guaranteed meal).

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For links and images visit the page: https://nonzerosum.games/staghunt.html

We've considered how the Prisoner's Dilemma reveals a number of key concepts in game theory. Yet, I have some reservations that it is the field's best advocate for applying game theory in the real world.

This episode will outline the problems with using the Prisoner's Dilemma as our go-to scenario.

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For illustrations and links, check out the original post: https://nonzerosum.games/dilemmasdilemma.html

The Prisoner's Dilemma is the go-to example for game theory noobs and experts alike. It's a non-zero-sum game that introduces payoff matrices, it has a Nash Equilibrium that is not also Pareto Efficient (helping to distinguish between the two) and when taken further, we discover that strategies change with iterated games. It's got it all! Or does it? This post explains the Prisoner's Dilemma and details its benefits while the following series will question whether or not it's really the best advocate for game theory in the real world.

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For the original post and links, visit: https://nonzerosum.games/prisonersdilemma.html

It is high time I confront a phrase that is a major obstacle to moral dialogue; the refrain... well, it's subjective.

In this episode I make a case for the tractability of moral values.

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The original post, with links can be visited here: https://nonzerosum.games/itssubjective.html

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The post references consequentialist ethics, in particular Utilitarianism but doesn't fully flesh it out. I intend to post specifically about this in the future, but for now here's a bit about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Utilitarianism