The Patriarch’s Will – a game theory puzzle
Long-time reader Scott found the following puzzle from this site: Here is a scenario which occurred many millennia ago: The patriarch of a wealthy family was on his deathbed and wanted to divide his gold among his eight sons who were all very, very greedy. Wishing to favor the oldest son (as ...

Saving money on a plumber – game theory in practice
The other day I called a new plumber for a non-urgent job. He came to my house, and after inspecting said, "It'll be $150 and I can do it today. What do you want to do?" I had no idea how much the job should cost, so I had to make ...

Dilbert Prisoner’s Dilemma – Youtube video
An amusing clip from the short-lived Dilbert TV series. Dilbert and his friends find themselves in a three-way Prisoner's Dilemma. See how it turns out:

Inception-style movie trailers and mashups
I'm somewhat obsessed with the music from Christopher Nolan's latest film Inception, and it turns out I'm not the only one! The intoxicating music is making waves as re-cut and re-edited "Inception style trailers" for movies like The Dark Knight, The Matrix, Toy Story 3, and Total Recall, among others. I've shared ...

Winning a rigged game – a fun riddle
Someone sent me a fun riddle that I wanted to share: In a distant kingdom lived a king and his beautiful daughter. The daughter was in love with a peasant which the king strongly objects. However, he decided to show his fairness. He gave the peasant a chance. He said he ...