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I just invented a different snowdrift game, modeled on something that happened to me a couple of years ago. You live in a townhouse next to another family that
by scj 9y ago
I just invented a different snowdrift game, modeled on something that happened to me a couple of years ago.
You live in a townhouse next to another family that shares a driveway which turns onto a medium traffic density one-way street (there are traffic lights a few hundred feet away which control flow). Gaps in traffic tend to exist around when the lights change.
The frequency of snowstorms this year is higher than normal, and the overworked snowplows have made a snow bank too tall and wide to see around in your car. The only way onto the street is to turn blindly and hope that either no one is coming, or that they see you in time to stop.
Your salary is $x/hour, and it would take two hours to manually trim the snowbank to the point where you can see above it. Thus, it would cost $2x to remove the snowbank (assuming you could work overtime and earn the money).
Each party makes a choice if they would shovel the bank alone, with help, or not at all. If they both do it, they both lose $1x in OT wages. If one does it alone, $2x. But if neither do it, the hazard remains and each party rolls a 6-sided die. Anybody rolling a 1 loses $kx (where k is larger than x), and no longer have a car to participate with.
That covers one day. It will take 7 days for the city to remove the snow bank if no one else does. Any parties with a car will repeat this 6 additional times until the snow bank is removed.
Then rank the dollars lost and award real world prizes for the top positions. If there are 10 people and the top 5 get the exact same prize, shoveling might become attractive (through co-operation, as it is extremely likely at least one of the two parties per trial will be eliminated).
- rhizome 9y agoIs there an option to install a fisheye mirror so people in the driveway can see perpendicularly down the street? https://www.reflectionproducts.com/images/View-car-200-feet-half.jpg https://www.reflectionproducts.com/images/View-car-200-feet-...
- jerf 9y agoFirst, the point of these discussions is explicitly to stay within the lines. We all know there's a billion elaborations that you could make, but those are different problems. Worthy and interesting problems, even, but different problems. Second, there isn't always a great option for that, no.
- vacri 9y ago'Staying within the lines' is why game theory doesn't actually work as a good predictor of human behaviour.
- rwnspace 9y agoNot when applied without wisdom, but it's an excellent predictor of subsets of human behaviour, and a subset of those generalise well enough to satisfactorily explain existing phenomena. Simply because one has to be selective doesn't make it unworkable. It does make for misleading headlines, though.
- logfromblammo 9y agoSimple laziness theory dictates that one should open a window and use a mirror on a telescoping pole (aka "inspection mirror") to better see around the snowdrift, and make liberal use of your vehicle's horn as you make your somewhat-less-than-blind turn. If you really want to cooperate, buy two, and sell one to your neighbor at cost. I really hate, hate, hate shoveling snow.
- scj 9y agoFrozen ground, with an equal snowbank on the other side (it is a one way street, so you only care about one of the banks). If you had installed it in prior years, it'd probably be buried (the real life snow bank this is based on was approximately 6-7 feet tall).