Where I teach game theory and piss people off

[drjmaxwell]

I thought of a great way of teaching game-theoretic equilibria today. The scenario is emo internet people.

Let's say you have a friend who leaves an entry that's like, "A Final Note: It's the end of the road for me. Everything has sucked so much I can't carry on." with tags of sigh;bitching;handgun_in_mouth

Now, you as an individual have to assess

Comments

[fenikkusuken]

Word.

[drjmaxwell]

What is this, 1998?

Dr. J is in da hizz-ouse.

[fenikkusuken]

I now have a somewhat disturbing mental image of you wearing a sideways baseball hat, a wife-beater and a ton of bling, bumpin' to da beat.

How about 'Ditto', or maybe 'Ibid',then?

[drjmaxwell]

"A sound analysis. Good work, old chap."

Here through flist linkage.

[neshel]

Relevant anecdote: when I was 15 I found out a friend was suicidal (suicidal letter written to 3 of us - screamed "cry for help") and decided to tell the school guidance counselor about it (we had good ones). When she asked me if I had done it I lied because she had told me those things in confidence and I was concerned with the embarrassment factor (I asked to remain anonymous). Somehow she knew it was me though, and when I finally fessed up she was only mad at me for lying, and thanked me for doing it. Turns out I might have saved her life by showing I cared enough to try and help.

Moral of the story: I'm glad the embarrassment factor only influenced my silly teenage mind after I did something to help. I guess I knew that saving a life trumps embarrassment, but admitting to breaking her confidence didn't.

Re: Here through flist linkage.

[drjmaxwell]

I've called the cops on someone who's already swallowed the pills, and they're alive (and reasonably happy) to this day.

I've also called the bluff of someone who said he had a gun to his head.

It's just all in how you weight the costs and the probabilities.

[rebukes]

I don't know. I'm a firm believer in the "If you're really gonna kill yourself, you wouldn't tell anyone. You'd just do it." thing. I'd assume they wanted someone to talk to and talk them down from it. (which, imo, probably wasn't going to happen anyway) It's the ol' slitting your wrists across instead of vertically thing.

But yeah, knowing me, someone will tell me that they're gonna off themselves, I won't call anyone, and end up with a dead friend. So yeah.

[drjmaxwell]

The logic still works. If you believe in what you said, then you just assign the probability they're actually going to kill themselves something very close to or equal to zero, and proceed from there.

If you really want to die and are going to do it, and just want people to know, start your message with, "If you're reading this, I'm dead."

[snow_fall]

Perhaps there are different ways that people go about committing suicide, but I agree. If someone is definitely going to do it, they don't care enough about the future to care to write a note.

[rya_kelley]

Your data is faulty. It hinges on the assumption that I have the capacity for embarrassment.

[drjmaxwell]

Just assign embarrassment a cost of zero. All the logic remains the same.

Not faulty. Flexible.