Work Hard, Play Hard!

I have discussed various times in my other blogs about the application of Economics in the business world. How does competition drive success in business? How do businesses proceed with an optimal strategy?

Though these questions are vague, they are all related to the concept of optimization and the prisoner's dilemma. Being a former chess player, I think of the prisoner's dilemma as a game of strategy. Having conducted 3 - 4 experiments in class related to the prisoner's dilemma, it familiarized me with the topic. To help explain it, though, I'm going to refer to the explanation from Wikipedia:

The Prisoner's Dilemma

Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other. The prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge, but they have enough to convict both on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the prosecutors offer each prisoner a bargain. Each prisoner is given the opportunity either to betray the other by testifying that the other committed the crime, or to cooperate with the other by remaining silent. The offer is:

• If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves two years in prison
• If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve three years in prison (and vice versa)
• If A and B both remain silent, both of them will only serve one year in prison (on the lesser charge).

The original concept of the Prisoner's dilemma, as seen in the payoff table, is where if both players confess they go to jail for 6 years, don't confess and go to jail for just one year, etc.  The optimal strategy is for both people to confess unless there are other variables in effect.

Until I reread the chapter, earlier today, I questioned myself, "How is this related to Economics?". Take this same example into consideration when looking at pollution. Though it would be ideal for both firms to not pollute as they can maximize their profit. If one firm pollutes the other has to as well to achieve some profit. It is a situation of "competitiveness". Prisoner's dilemma, for economists, is not about 2 people going to jail but identifying an individual agent's reasoning behind their choices.

Furthermore, I discussed, again, about the rigor in my economics class with my friend, Umer Lakhan. I have been comparing myself relative to everyone in the class and doubted my academic capabilities, as well. I have realized that there is going to be a specific ratio that I have to follow to catch up with some of my classmates. The majority of the students in the class have taken Econ before, like I have stated in my previous blogs, thus they only need to spend 2 hours per day working on Econ-related stuff. Whereas for me, it is double the effort and time because of my "slow" start. It is not a matter of me comparing myself with people but rather comparing myself with me and looking at the progress I have made. In the past 3 weeks, I understood what a high school student in my district would learn in a year's time. That is exponential progress, and I am very proud of where I have come in the past couple of days!

The Dance Crew. :)

Right after talking about some of our daily values and commitments, Umer and I went off to the East Commons to which all my friends were surprisingly there. We turned up the music really loud (with the approval of RA) and we were just dancing all the way from 10:20 to 11 PM. I have the tendency to get distracted easily. For the past 2 hours, I have been preparing for tomorrow's lecture.

Now off to bed. :)