No Googling etc for the answers of any puzzles people post
Lets see who can get this correct first, start with an easy question: How many times can you subtract 6 from 36?
Infinity? I'll get 30 each time, though.
The question is ambiguous.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
A fairly simple puzzle:
Mr. Red, Mr. Yellow, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Green each wears a shirt that is the same color as the name of one of the other men. Each man is wearing a different color. Mr. Red and Mr. Yellow are older than the man in green. The man in red is taller than Mr. Yellow. Which man wears a yellow shirt?
Spoiler:
edit: Also, all solutions to my last one were correct.
Last edited by Wraith; 08-28-2012 at 11:44 PM.
Here's one I always thought was fun:
Five pirates come across a treasure of 100 gold coins. By pirate law, the method they use to split the loot is as follows:
The pirate with the highest rank proposes a way to split that loot. If at least half of the pirates vote to approve that plan, the loot is split accordingly. Otherwise, the pirate who proposed that plan is cut up into tiny pieces and fed to the sharks and the remaining pirates start again with the pirate of the next highest rank.
These particular pirates are all perfect logicians, and want to stay alive, get as much gold as possible, and see as many of the other pirates die as possible, in that order of priority. They'll never sacrifice from one of the higher priorities for a lesser priority.
How is the treasure split?
Ohh, uh, I dunno, the pirate of the highest rank proposes 33 coins to himself and the two other highest ranking pirates and the other two can go and fuck themselves?
The head pirate claims the treasure is the subject of an ancient pirate curse and offers to take the all the treasure and the curse upon himself alone. He then murders the second pirate in his sleep when he starts asking too many questions. The head pirate uses his gold to fund a successful career of pirating spanning two decades and he earns himself a fearsome reputation for both brilliance and ruthlessness until his ship is cornered by the Royal Navy off Port Royal and his crew sells him out in exchange for clemency. He is hung in 1657, but his legacy lives on to this day where his exploits are often mentioned in the same breath as those of a Blackbeard or Barbarossa.
It's a version of an ultimatum game. You have to think of it game-theoretically, starting from the preferences of the last pirate and going backwards.
Spoiler:
Hope is the denial of reality
Well, shit, didn't realize it was that formalized. Way to google, Loki!
I got that it was an ultimatum game from the way you phrased it. I didn't hear about this particular variant before, but they're all pretty similar (you generally offer slightly more than nothing and the other player will have to accept; the NE can even be offering nothing, because the other player is indifferent between rejecting and accepting your proposal).Games like these are one of the reasons I like game theory.
Last edited by Loki; 08-29-2012 at 02:43 AM.
Hope is the denial of reality
What's more interesting is that people normally DON'T follow this kind of logic. There's some sense of 'equitableness' or 'fairness' that gets involved, and it's likely that a real person would vote to dismember the pirate who asked for 98% of the booty. It implies that homo economicus is a bit of a misnomer... either that, or the priorities of the game are so constrained that they don't take into account other motivations that would change the equilibrium values.
Homo economicus is a simplifying assumption. No one should seriously consider that people only place utility in money. There's nothing inherently irrational about valuing things other than money.
Hope is the denial of reality
Agreed.
Found the answer to that one. Don't think I'd be able to figure it out.![]()
Hope is the denial of reality
Loki,
No Googling etc for the answers of any puzzles people postNo Googling etc for the answersNo Googling