Two-Year Anniversary of Game Theory articles

I was drafting this week’s article when it donned on me that it has been about two years since Game Theory Tuesdays started. And I would like to take a moment to reflect on the anniversary, as I did previously for the one-year anniversary.

I honestly can’t believe this column has continued for so long. When I started writing I thought I would run out of ideas in a few months. Luckily my idea stream has been replenished time and again thanks to reader suggestions and Google Alerts. Now I often find myself overwhelmed with ideas which is a problem I am more than happy to have

I want to take this time to thank you for your loyal support by sending articles to others, providing intelligent comments, and offering your suggestions to me. I especially thank those of you who have returned after my recent blogging breaks.

Today I want to highly three of my favorite game theory articles during the last year.

Can a rational person believe in miracles?
This article has particular relevancy, as it pertains to the newly appointed NIH director, Francis Collins. Collins is openly religious and so his appointment has garnered attention from critics and supporters alike.

Can rationality and miracles co-exist? Collins says they can, and he presents a mathematical argument in his book The Language of God. I found it so interesting that I spent some time thinking about it. Ultimately, I found his argument was less convincing than promised once I used Bayes Theorem more generally.

This article also includes some of the most interesting comments on this blog, so check them out if you have not already (see article to read comments).

A math problem that might help you win one million dollars
ESPN has an interesting promotion “Streak for the Cash.” The rules are simple: pick winners of matchups, create a streak of wins, and if you create a long enough streak, you qualify to win $1 million.

The mathematics of streaks are peculiar and counter-intuitive, and in this article I offered a puzzle that provides some of these insights.

The Braess Paradox
Traffic stinks. It is also counter-intuitive, as I learned when my commute was improved when there were fewer roads on which to travel.

The Braess paradox illustrates how adding roads can actually increase congestion in a network. The root problem is that drivers are not coordinated, and so small incentives can end up creating bad flows.

The same idea that “less can be more” comes up over and over again. I want to write more on this topic so stay tuned.

A final thought
This site has been going through a few design and content changes. One change is a navigation tool that links to the next and previous game theory articles. If you have not been to the site recently, here is what it looks like:

This addition was thanks to a reader suggestion and I suspect useful to many new visitors.

As always, I appreciate your feedback so feel free to email me and I’ll do my best to get back.

Thanks for your support this year, and here’s to having another good one