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.