What is a zero-sum game?
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A zero-sum game is an activity that distributes rewards/punishments so that they even out to nothing overall. No net-gain or net-loss when you take *everyone* into account.
* If I win a ranked chess game against you, I might take 5 ELO rating points from you. I go +5 and you go -5.
* If I have $100, and share $50 with you, then that means I am down $50.
* If I fire Alice to hire Bob, the same work gets done and the same amount of money is paid overall.
Zero-sum games are typically ‘win-lose’ scenarios like this.
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It’s easy to think that every ‘game’ is like this. However, not always. Often, one side wins or loses more than the other loses or wins, or maybe both sides win, or maybe both sides lose:
Some positive-sum “games” might be:
* I’m choking on some food and will die, but you do some first aid and save my life. You spent some minor effort in trying to save me, and if it works, you save my entire life. I gain far more than you lost.
* Imagine that there is a nearby forest that we use as a supply of lumber. I know how to make chairs, and you know how to start fires (and neither of know the other skill). If we didn’t cooperate, I’d sit in a chair in the cold, and you’d sit on the ground next to a warm fire. If we cooporate, we can both sit in chairs by the fire. Cooperation costs us little-to-nothing and we both benefit.
* We play a game of chess and both have a fun time. That’s a win-win, in a sense.
Some negative-sum games might be:
* You accidentally burn down our shared forest. Neither of us have any lumber now, so we both lost.
* We get into a fight over who gets to use the last of the firewood. We both fatally wound each other and die from our injuries. We both lost.
* A protest is a lose-lose, at least in the short-term. The protestors bear the inconvenience of protesting instead of doing other things like study/work/hobbies/leisure/rest/etc, and the protest inconveniences others (perhaps the government).
* Strikes are similar to protests. The workers forgoe the chance to working and collect their wage, and the employer doesn’t get the labor of its workforce.
* We play a game of chess, but neither of us like chess, so the time spent on it is lost and we got no enjoyment from it.
* EDIT: and of course wars, where overall there is a loss of life and wealth and materials, and at most one side wins, but they win less than both sides lost collectively.
Note that ‘lose-lose’ games aren’t always bad. Often they are, but I think protests and strikes can be very good forces for change, but they are, in the short term, lose-lose. I think the value of them is in proving that you’re willing to take a lose-lose, and hence pressure the other side to change in order to stop their losses.
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