Subj : Re: Recession to Depressi
To   : Arelor
From : Dr. What
Date : Mon Jul 25 2022 08:32:00

-=> Arelor wrote to Dr. What <=-

 Ar> That is all good in paper.

Many things are good on paper, but Bruce is talking about real life.

 Ar> My observation from playing hundres of board games is that people is
 Ar> actually very bad at deciding for the best option for themselves and
 Ar> that there are lots of arbitrary psychological factors kicking in. This
 Ar> also applies in real life in spades, but I bring up board games because
 Ar> the impact is measurable.

The problem with board games is that they are games.  Is a person who stands to
lose their imaginary sword going to play the game the same way if they were
going to lose their car?  No.

So, yes, people will make bad decisions in games - because they have less to
lose and don't care.

 Ar> Fast forward to real life, I can tell so many stories about people
 Ar> backstabbing a third party for 3000 EUR of benefit when a deal between
 Ar> the two would have made them tens of thousand of Euro. It is freaking
 Ar> nuts.

Yes, it is.  And that's an example of a child-minded person who values short
term gains over long term ones.  And is a good example of how society is
keeping people child-like longer - to the detriment of society.

 Ar> This applies in so many fields of life. Jack has hut where he throws
 Ar> parties with friends. One day the wind damages the roof very badly and
 Ar> Jack asks for friends for help in order to get it repaired, because
 Ar> Jack is one-handed and has a wooden peg for a leg. Game theory dictates
 Ar>  that at least one of Jack's friends will help out, because for a
 Ar> limited investment, everybody will get to continue having parties in
 Ar> Jack's hut. What happens is that everyone of Jack friends stays at home
 Ar> bored forever more because they don't want to spend the meagrest of
 Ar> resources, usually because they never gave a damn for Jack to being
 Ar> with.

And you are ignoring the many instances of "barn raising" and how communities
come together to help each other in times of need.

I would argue that Jack didn't have friends.  He had a bunch of users who took
advantage of him.  He was willfully ignorant if he couldn't see that.


.... When talking nonsense try not to be serious.
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