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mindyourdecisions.com
Personal blog · mindyourdecisions.commathgames
mindyourdecisions.com is a personal blog at mindyourdecisions.com about math and games. Since 2008, 57 different Hacker News readers have linked it 132 times, most often “How Game Theory Solved a Religious Mystery”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Most-linked posts?
- How Game Theory Solved a Religious Mystery4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-02-01
- iPhone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-01-27
- Hotelling’s Game, or Why Gas Stations Have Competitors Nearby (2008)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-04-29
- /blog/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-01-30
- Game Theory in The Dark Knight: the opening scene2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-02-02
- Why gas stations and food trucks cluster together (2008)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-05-28
- /blog/2016/12/13/game-theory-applied-why-is-there-a-pint-glass-in-the-corner-of-tvs-at-pubs/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-12
What Hacker News says?
Game theory suggests why this is the case: https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/03/25/game-theory-tu...
Comment linking /blog/2008/03/25/game-theory-tuesdays-hotelling%e2%80%99s-game-or-why-gas-stations-have-competitors-nearby/
on “Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?”Submitted Hotelling’s Game, or Why Gas Stations Have Competitors Nearby as a story · 128 points
HN discussionSince La Liga can't price discriminate easily Sports broadcasts are massively price discriminated, however, which is probably the whole point of this bruhaha. Pubs in the UK, for example, pay a much higher fee (something like 15'000£ a year[1]) than households (which I believe is in the 50Quid range a month) for the right to publicly broadcast the games. It's probably such shenanigans (using a home subscription to s…
Comment linking /blog/2016/12/13/game-theory-applied-why-is-there-a-pint-glass-in-the-corner-of-tvs-at-pubs/
on “Shazam-like technology used to identify bars illegally streaming soccer games”Submitted How Game Theory Solved a Religious Mystery as a story · 104 points
HN discussionSky Sports use a far simpler solution that doesn't violate anyone's privacy. The satellite feed that's licensed for public venues has a small beer glass logo burned in to the image. The amount of beer in the glass changes every day on a pseudorandom basis. An inspector can check whether a pub has the right license simply by looking at the screen - if the glass is missing or contains the wrong amount of beer, it's an…
Comment linking /blog/2016/12/13/game-theory-applied-why-is-there-a-pint-glass-in-the-corner-of-tvs-at-pubs/
on “Shazam-like technology used to identify bars illegally streaming soccer games”Submitted An 'impossible' card puzzle as a story · 91 points
HN discussionI was gonna post a comment saying what they meant was obvious, but then I just went "ohhhh." * That's actually quite an annoying little problem there. One work-around might be to add rules to the exchange forbidding the placing of multiple bids by the same entity at the same price, and then allocating randomly. This is also reminding me of the Talmud's descriptions of how to pay off debtors when there isn't enough m…
Comment linking /blog/2008/06/10/how-game-theory-solved-a-religious-mystery/
on “A High Frequency Trader's Apologia, Part 1”Submitted Hotelling’s Game, or Why Gas Stations Have Competitors Nearby (2008) as a story · 83 points
HN discussionhttps://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/03/25/game-theory-tu...
Comment linking /blog/2008/03/25/game-theory-tuesdays-hotelling%E2%80%99s-game-or-why-gas-stations-have-competitors-nearby/
on “The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store”Submitted iPhone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits as a story · 81 points
HN discussionTwo excellent books on the subject are Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur Benjamin (for beginners) and Dead Reckoning: Calculating Without Instruments by Ronald Doerfler (more advanced). The Mind Your Decisions blog ( http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/tag/mental-math/ ) has a lot of neat mental math tricks, but they're not really organized into a unified presentation there as in the books above.
Comment linking /blog/tag/mental-math/
on “The Dying Art of Mental Math Tricks”Submitted How Game Theory Solved a Religious Mystery as a story · 78 points
HN discussionDo you wind up wasting the next one in the row, so only wasting half as many slots? Reminds me of the 1/3 coin revolution problem: Circle A has 1/3 the radius of circle B. Circle A rolls around circle B until it returns to its starting position. How many revolutions of circle A are there in total? https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2015/07/05/everyone-got-t...
Comment linking /blog/2015/07/05/everyone-got-this-sat-math-question-wrong-can-you-solve-it-sunday-puzzle/
on “Ford EVs gain access to Tesla Superchargers starting today”Submitted A paradoxical math ratio as a story · 61 points
HN discussionReminds me of mathematical methods for fairly dividing cake, eg https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2015/12/22/how-to-split-a... (though I don't think that's the method I'm recalling).
Comment linking /blog/2015/12/22/how-to-split-a-cake-fairly-using-math-game-theory-tuesdays/
on “The Terraform Plugin for the Dominos Pizza Provider”Submitted Why the secret to speedier highways might be closing some roads: the Braess paradox as a story · 50 points
HN discussionPresh Talwalkar posts weekly logic puzzles[1]. His blog is a good source of interesting applications of economics and game theory to the real world. [1] http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/
Comment linking /blog/
on “Prison Switcharoo”Submitted What do PhD Scientists in America Have in Common with Unmarried Women in China? as a story · 43 points
HN discussionhttp://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01... So yes, it "leaks password data". ;)
Comment linking /blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/iphone_passcode.jpg
on “iPhone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits”Submitted How to find cheap gas using game theory as a story · 41 points
HN discussionhttp://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2011/01/27/game-theory-and...
Comment linking /blog/2011/01/27/game-theory-and-probability-of-iphone-passwords/
on “Graphical password vulnerability”Submitted The Man and the Lion Puzzle: Pursuit and Evasion Game Theory as a story · 37 points
HN discussionYou can still have some security by repeating one digit. http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2011/01/27/game-theory-and...
Comment linking /blog/2011/01/27/game-theory-and-probability-of-iphone-passwords/
on “Graphical password vulnerability”Submitted A novel use for unpaired left shoes as a story · 32 points
HN discussionAnd even very slight preferences for living near people who look like you can lead to intense segregation: http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/10/28/game-theory-and...
Comment linking /blog/2008/10/28/game-theory-and-racism-the-schelling-segregation-model/
on “Why don't black and white Americans live together?”Submitted If a company gives holidays on people's birthdays, how many people will it hire? as a story · 22 points
HN discussionThe only blog I really read: http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/ (interesting discussion of game theory that is accessible to non-game-theorests) I also check http://startupnorth.ca/ from time to time to keep up on what's happening in Canada.
Comment linking /blog/
on “Ask YC: Favorite blogs?”Submitted The necktie paradox as a story · 19 points
HN discussionFor people who want more substantive ideas about the topic: they talk about "positive leverage" and compare the situation to what you encounter in a hostage crisis. In economics, this is actually called the "Patient Seller" model, or the "Rubinstein Bargaining Model" - it's a basic element of Game Theory and comes out of John Nash's famous "Nash Equilibrium" (see: Russell Crowe in the movie Beautiful Mind!). Basical…
Comment linking /blog/2008/07/15/why-patience-pays-off-in-negotiations/
on “Getting Leverage in Hostage Negotiations”Submitted Can you solve this geometry problem for 6th graders in China? as a story · 14 points
HN discussion
