An interesting story

I have got an interesting story to tell you.

I remember that I first this heard this story from an economics lecturer from a while back. She said that the story came from the movie A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe. I can't verify nor gain say this for I have yet to watch this movie.

Anyway, let me tell you the story about game theory, a gentleman's agreement and honour among thieves (or the lack thereof).



And the story goes likes this...

We have a group of three guys on a Friday night after a long week at work, sitting in a bar. Let's call them Tom, Dick and Harry. After a few rounds of drinks, they spot a group of four women stumble into the bar out of the cold. Only one of the girls was a knockout bombshell, the others were all plain-janes. They do a quick scan of the room and decided that they are the best looking group of guys in the bar. The only question is, how do they proceed?

It's pretty logical that the guys will agree together on which girl each of them will pursue to avoid any conflicts of interest. They may even have a few strategies up their sleeves already. But, that's about where conventional dating logic stops. A higher, more informed dating strategy is necessary to ensure a successful follow-through, ie. the hook-up.

The problem is a little more complex when you finally sit down and think through it. If the guys compete against each other for the knockout, then only one of them can win. The other two guys must settle for one of the plain-janes, but the girls will feel slighted and won't give the guys what they want.

If the guys agree not to compete for the bombshell and let one of them take her, the other two guys will still feel they got the short-end of the stick. Which, the plain-janes will pick up on, and again, nobody gets what they want.

Right now, by each pursuing an open and available plain-jane, they all get to go home with a girl and all of them would have a good time. When you look at it that way, there is no incentive for each of them to change their strategy. But, each guy definitely wants to have shot with the hot knockout.

Thus, we have Dick by being a little sneaky and hell of a lot smarter than his friends. They all agree to have all of them go after the plain-janes and ignore the knockout. He goes in with his buddies and their gentleman's agreement but, with a pre-meditated approach.

And, during the course of the night, while Tom and Harry entertains the plain-janes, Dick starts hitting on the hot knockout bombshell.