Analyzing Professional Networks on LinkedIn
In a society where technology dominates nearly every aspect of our lives, even professional networking has an online presence through the popular platform, LinkedIn. Once a person has a complete and up-to-date profile, he/she can use LinkedIn to establish connections with fellow students, alumni, faculty, employers, etc. This is done by sending and accepting connection […]
Game Theory and the Evolution of Compassion
In this TED talk, Robert Wright explained how the evolution of compassion, or in other words, our decisions on whether to deploy golden rules or not, are influenced by game theory and the evolution of global networks. From his point of view, compassion first happen through kin selection, which is driven by gene and eventually […]
The United Airlines Fiasco: How Game Theory Could Help
Six months ago, everyone was talking about the passenger who got dragged off the United Airlines flight, left bruised and bloodied. People had feelings and thoughts of disgust, rage and anger. But what very few people thought about was how the airline industry is actually a game. So how is the airline industry a game? […]
It’s More Likely Your Opponent is Bluffing When It Comes to Large Bets in Poker
Poker is one of the many applications in which a mixed-strategy Nash Equilibrium arises. The article, “The Mathematics of Bluffing” provides an intuitive approach to understanding these equilibrium situations, and what it means for player’s tendencies to either call (i.e. match) an opponent’s bet or bluff in a river card situation of poker. To provide […]
OPEC vs. US natural gas, Prisoner’s Dilemma
OPEC and the US natural gas market have been experiencing the opposite of a commodity bust for the past few years. An increase in the amount of natural gas produced in the US led to a large drop in oil prices in 2014. However, despite the surplus of fuel in the market, both the US […]
How Bitcoin Works: An Anonymous Collaborative Network
In its most essential form, Bitcoin is a ledger where all monetary transactions are kept. Whenever anyone sends currency via bitcoin, the master ledger where accounts are tallied are debited and credited the amount sent for each person. To keep it safe, this ledger is distributed among a network of computers all around the world, […]
Balancing Networks to Explain Antitrust
In 1998, the FTC ruled that Toys ‘R’ Us had ruled that Toys ‘R’ Us violated U.S. antitrust law (i.e., The Sherman Act) when it orchestrated what the Court considered to be a horizontal boycott of warehouse clubs (e.g. Costco, BJ’s, etc.) that were able to offer lower prices than Toys ‘R’ Us. Toys ‘R’ […]
Six Degrees of Seperation
Six degrees of Separation In the video, Veritasium creator Derek Muller explain the phenomenon, Six degrees of separation. This phenomenon states that everyone in the world is connected to each other in 6 degrees or less, as in you and a random person in Australia are probably connected by 5 intermediaries who know each other. […]