Rules of game: Win-win or lose-lose

What happens when a group of four single guys sitting in a bar finds a phenomenally beautiful girl entering along with her 4 moderately beautiful friends? All the guys go for the most beautiful girl with their basic instincts, decreasing the probability of getting that girl to 25% for each.

But a brilliant guy sitting at the bar comes up with an incredible idea and changes the rule of the game itself.  He suggests an option that will make all of them a winner.

Option A: Everyone tries to talk the most beautiful girl; only one of them gets to talk to the girl and rests of the guys sit at bar whining. L

Option B: None tries to reach out to the most beautiful girl and tries to talk to one the moderately beautiful girls; everyone gets to talk to a girl and all are winners. J

Amazing right? This idea is based on a concept called Nash equilibrium which has been used widely in the game theory, with the premise that the competition between two opponents is not necessarily governed by zero-sum logic. In simpler words, in any competition there does not have to be a one-winner-rest-losers situation if all do what is good for the group and not just good for himself.

Another famous example of this concept is ‘Prisoner’s dilemma’ explained below:

Two prisoners have following choices in the interrogation: 

Option 1: None confess = each one get 2 years of jail time 

Option 2: One of them confesses = the one who confessed gets 1 year of jail while the other gets 10 years of jail time

Option 3: Both confess = each of get 5 years of jail time

So logically, they both can be in a win-win situation by not confessing but in spirit of decreasing self’s jail time, they might be tempted to confess and end up with more jail time for each other.

Next time when you find yourself in such situation, don’t forget that thanks to Professor Nash we have an option that can lead to win-win situation for all the competitors.

This post is in honor of a Nobel laureate and mathematical genius, John Nash, the originator of this concept, who died of a car accident on 23^rd May, 2015. His contribution to the game theory will not only is stepping stone for research in the field for other researchers but also will be helpful in decision making inside complex systems in daily life.

I would surely recommend to watch Oscar winning movie ‘A beautiful mind’ which has documented his contribution to the field of game theory and struggle with mental illness for more than three decades before his resurrection to the normal life.  

The 'Firsts'

We all keep saying that "There is always first time, for everything". But do we really care for all the firsts in our life? Every phase in life comes with some special firsts with it. Some of them are really close to us and we do cherish them for life. Like first salary, first car, first kiss, first steps of your baby. But there are quite a few firsts which are completely ignored in this fast moving, self centered metro life. Your first grey hair, first fight with your life partner, first time you taught your parents how to use WatsApp. We all want to catch up with the momentum of life but are caught up so bad that we are blindly passing by these amazing moments. We need to remember that life is happening now and tomorrow is always going to be today in some time. So don't let this moment go past by you unnoticed. Look around, live now and witness all those 'unattended' firsts in your life. 

Wake up, life is calling you.

Old 'Sunny' days

'Summer holidays' is, i guess, one of the most favourite terms of every person since childhood. It has that special significance in life of every one of us, which we understand, hard way, when we get old. I remember my summer holidays from childhood, coloured with mangoes, wet with occasional thunder storm, sticky with dried drops of ice creams and lousy with long sleeping hours. Almost every summer holiday we use to go to my grand parents house and all cousins would meet and have loads of fun for next couple of weeks. Getting up early morning with grandmothers voice, having breakfast lazily, playing inside house to avoid heat, late lunch with aamras, post-lunch sleepy discussions about what to do in evening, early dinner and late night stories before sleep, all these made each day of that vacation. Though I had been a bit of asocial kid, I always enjoyed being a part (passive!) of these activities. As we all grew up, we all got engaged in different activities and could not get together due to different reasons and those fun-filled vacations, with all of us together, remained just as a childhood memory. We still try to take time out of the (self-made) busy schedule, but its impossible to get all of us together. I still wonder if not a week, but we get to live a day from that summer holiday. I know I want to spend it exactly same way, forgetting everything and living freely with no worries. What do you want this summer?

Thought for a day

Cheers to moving on..

One more interesting thing about human behavior towards certain events in life. There is always an event you wait for so long and you plan so many things to do after it. But when it happens then you don’t do all those planned stuff and the only reaction you have is a sigh of relief. I just witnessed this thing today. I completed one more milestone in my academic life and appeared for the last paper of my MBA today. After two years of rigorous track of quizzes, presentations, competitions and exams, I had millions of plans for this last day of exam from long time. But ultimately when it happened today, all I did was sit back and feel the rush in my backbone, exactly the feeling you get after a roller coaster ride. Knowing that the excitement has ended and probably you have enjoyed that experience for the last time, makes you stunned. Sure we will miss this last ride but we have keep moving to venture on the next exciting ride. That’s life. You just have to enjoy each ride in that moment, feel the end of ride and be ready to fasten the seat belt for next ride.

From the days which were "On Air"

February 13 is celebrated as a World Radio Day. Now we can think that why do we need to celebrate for the signals transmitted through electromagnetic waves in a radio frequency range. But no, this is not all. The radio has been an integral part of people’s lives just till couple of decades ago. In the days before the advent of television, the radio brought the family together to listen to news, music and drama. As radio continues to evolve in the digital age, it remains the medium that reaches the widest audience worldwide. This multi-purpose medium can help people, including youth, to engage in discussions on topics that affect them. It can save lives during natural or human-made disasters; and it provides journalists with a platform to report facts and tell their stories. It also continues to play the role of uniting family through its improved entertainment offerings. So let us celebrate this day by giving credit to this long lost but cherishable media.

Rain: A little bit of magic for everyone

On a lousy Monday evening, you wake up after a late afternoon nap to expect a further lousy evening and to your surprise the sky has planned a special treat for you and there it is, a rain. Nothing cheers you up more than rain, provided you don’t have work and all you have to do is sit and just look at rain quietly from your window. Small droplets of water twinkling from the sky fall on earth to make everything look more beautiful. The soothing noise of drizzling catching your attention and melting all the worries away. You remember your past encounters with rain, hard to forget as rain made them all very special. It may be a paper boat made by your father to leave on a small water trail on road, a bet with your friend to run on a wet road as fast as you can, a sudden rain during a family trip and all hiding under one small tree to keep themselves a little less wet, a long walk on an empty road with someone special, a lonely walk just to take your mind off from everything that’s bothering you. Rain has always been there as a silent listener witnessing all these special moments in your life. But like other special childhood memories, fate of rain is also to be just a memory and a hindrance for the present. Rain is more of a pain for us when we start caring more about reaching office in dry cloths. As wisely said by Roger Miller, “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet”. This monsoon let’s try to cherish the happiness offered by rain and be grateful to the joy called rain. Let’s get back to childhood and make paper boats for that little water trail, let’s run with friends in rain on an empty road, let’s backpack and get back to beautiful nature, and let’s remember that it’s never too late for anything and help rain in bringing back its magic, for us, for everyone.