[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 5: The Hawk and the Dove - How Nature Plays Games Without Thinking

Play Smarter with Game Theory
Level 5: The Hawk and the Dove - How Nature Plays Games Without Thinking

So far, we’ve looked at game theory in scenarios where players make conscious choices. In classical game theory, rational human players decide whether to cooperate, betray, or mix up their strategies based on the payoff. But in nature, animals don’t sit around drawing payoff matrices. Their “strategies” take the form of instincts, habits, or genes. The ones that provide an advantage in survival and reproduction are the ones that spread over generations.

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 4: Mixed Strategies - How to Keep Your Opponent Guessing

Play Smarter with Game Theory
Level 4: Mixed Strategies - How to Keep Your Opponent Guessing

In a penalty kick, the kicker has to choose where to shoot, and the goalkeeper has to decide where to dive. If either side becomes predictable, the other can take advantage. That’s where mixed strategies come in.

To keep the math clear, let’s imagine a simpler version of the game. The kicker can shoot left or right, and the goalkeeper can either dive left or right. The numbers in the table are the kicker’s chance of scoring (higher is better for the kicker).

• If the keeper dives the correct way, the kicker’s scoring chance is low (30–40%).

• If the keeper dives the wrong way, the kicker’s chance is higher (80–90%).

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 3: Stag Hunt - Why the Safe Option Isn’t Always the Smart One

Play Smarter with Game Theory
Level 3: Stag Hunt - Why the Safe Option Isn’t Always the Smart One

Two hunters in a forest can either work together to hunt a stag, which will feed them both for days, or they can each hunt rabbits alone. Rabbits are easy to catch but a stag is worth more. A stag can only be caught if both hunters commit. If one decides at the last minute to chase a rabbit instead, the other goes home empty-handed.

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 2: Prisoner's Dilemma - Why We Sometimes Betray the People We Should Trust

Play Smarter with Game Theory
Level 2: Prisoner's Dilemma - Why We Sometimes Betray the People We Should Trust

Imagine this: you and a friend are caught doing something you probably shouldn’t have been doing (we’ll assume it’s mildly illegal, for story purposes). The police separate you in different rooms. They make each of you the same offer:

• If you both stay silent, you each get a light fine.

• If you betray your friend and they stay silent, you go free and they get a big penalty.

• If they betray you and you stay silent, they go free and you get the big penalty.

• If you both betray each other, you both get a medium penalty.

You can’t talk to each other. You have to decide whether to trust them and keep quiet or to blame them.

[Play Smarter with Game Theory] Level 1: Why Everyone Is Playing Games (All the Time)

Play Smarter with Game Theory

Level 1: Why Everyone Is Playing Games (All the Time)

This morning, you probably played at least three games before you even finished breakfast.

You just didn’t notice. Maybe you made a decision on whether to hit snooze or wake up right away. Maybe you negotiated bathroom time with your sibling or roommate. Maybe you thought about whether to reply to that message right now or save it for later. None of these involved a dice or spinning wheel, but they were games. Not in the “fun” sense, but in the game theory sense: strategic decision-making in situations where other people’s choices affect yours, and yours affect theirs.

The Cost of Thinking: A Play Inspired by the Life of Alan Turing

Today is Alan Turing’s birthday, and I’m sharing something special to honor him. Turing was a mathematician, a codebreaker, and a pioneer of computer science. His ideas changed the world, but the world struggled to accept him.

The Cost of Thinking is my tribute to both his mind and his humanity. In the final scene, Joan asks: “Can we? Can we think beyond fear, beyond prejudice?” That’s the question this play leaves with you.

The Cost of Thinking: A Play Inspired by the Life of Alan Turing

Characters:

 

Alan Turing: British mathematician and cryptanalyst

 

Christopher Morcom: Turing’s close friend in school

 

Joan Clarke: Fellow cryptanalyst and close friend

 

 

 

Scene 1

 

Setting: A quiet school hallway. 1920s.

 

 

(Alan sits in a corner, sketching in his notebook. Christopher enters.)

 

CHRISTOPHER: You’re always hiding in here.

 

YOUNG ALAN: (without looking up) I’m not hiding. I’m thinking.

 

CHRISTOPHER: (sitting beside him) Thinking about what?

 

YOUNG ALAN: Patterns. How everything in nature follows one. The turning of seasons, the drift of stars, bees building perfect hexagons. Everything except for people. They act without logic.

 

CHRISTOPHER: (laughs) That’s because people have feelings, Alan. Feelings don’t make sense. That’s kind of the point. People are unpredictable. Messy. Infuriating sometimes. But also impossible not to care about.

 

YOUNG ALAN: That’s what makes them exhausting.

 

(A pause. Alan draws a circle, then a box. Still not looking up.)

 

YOUNG ALAN: Sometimes I wonder... what if I could build something that thinks properly? A machine that thinks faster than humans, and sees the truth in all the noise. It wouldn’t have fear or bias. Its thinking would follow a pattern, not feelings.

 

【英語短文】The Importance of Physical Activity in a Healthy Lifestyle

Regular physical activity is one of the most important habits of remaining healthy, and it has a few benefits. Firstly, one can lose weight if one exercises regularly. Maintaining a healthy weight then reduces one’s risk of diabetes and some cardiovascular diseases. In addition, some physical activities like weight-lifting helps strengthen one’s muscles and bones. Keeping one’s bones and joints healthy becomes increasingly essential when one starts aging. Last but not the least, exercising surprisingly benefits one’s brain, too. Regular physical activity not only reduces depression and anxiety, but also sharpens one’s thinking and judgement skills. To conclude, exercising is significant for a healthy lifestyle in that it profits one’s health in a few different aspects.

Possible Factors of BTS's Great Success (part 1)

So how exactly did they cross the language and culture barrier and become so popular worldwide? Today, I’m going to point out two aspects. 

The Start and Rising of BTS

When BTS just debuted in 2013, their agency, Bighit, wasn’t a very well known or rich company. (The three big agencies in Korea were SM, JYP, YG) So the agency couldn’t provide them with so many resources or opportunities to go on shows like the other groups. (In the beginning, they even had to go on the streets to promote their own concerts in person.) They were originally going to be a hip hop group similar to another group in the YG Entertainment, but Bang Si-hyunk, the CEO of Bighit, decided to make an idol group that can ignore the restrictions that Kpop was known for, and make socially conscious music.

What is Kpop?

The Korean wave, also known as Hallyu, means the rising popularity of Korean movies, dramas, music, fashion, and foods…etc. Hallyu has already been building for the last few decades, but among them, Korean pop music has become the most significantly popular recently. Most Kpop fans were only in Korea and a few other Asian countries back in 2010, but now, Kpop has gradually become a global phenomenon. Take “Gangnam Style” as an example, this song from the solo artist PSY, 2012, went super viral all around the world. Its music video even broke the upper limit of YouTube’s views, forcing YouTube to upgrade its system.

作文練習 - 戰爭

每天早上我都會經歷一場戰爭，一場就算我不願參與，敵軍還是會瘋狂轟炸我方，想將我逼出我死守的堡壘的戰爭；一場我只能孤軍奮戰，沒有任何援軍會前來幫我的戰爭。這麼殘酷又每天早上六點半發生的戰爭，就是我與蝙蝠俠鬧鐘的對決。

作文練習 - 感動的一刻

「下星期的連假我們能出去玩嗎？」我滿懷希望地問，「唉，雖然有放假，但我也沒空去訂住宿和安排行程呀！」媽媽回應道，「可是…我們真的很久沒出門旅行啦！」我滿滿的委屈，感覺爸爸媽媽都不在意我快被悶壞了的感受，明明就是連假卻沒辦法去旅行讓我抱怨連連。