Billions, GAME THEORY 101

Bobby ‘Axelrod’…

Hedge fund. Big Money. Wealth. High Finance.

The whole show, is built on one premise, one idea – one force, that gets the plot moving.

It’s all about game theory – and the show, pays homage, to the inventor of game theory.

His name, was ‘Robert Axelrod’..

and he was the pioneer – of game theory – the first one to really think about what it means to collaborate, to switch sides, and to create alliances, and what that really meant, for each, and everyone of the stakeholder’s involved.

You see – he was a scientist at heart – trying to understand, terribly unpredictable humans, that seem to never cooperate – and even if they did, it was hard to create sustainable relationships with different actors.

His most seminal piece of work was The Evolution of Cooperation.

And this was built on – his obsession with the prisoner’s dilemma.

He put the prisoner’s dilemma, into a computer program… and ran it an infinite amount of times, to see who would really win, in a zero sum game.

Some games in life, are zero sum, other games, may not be zero sum – the trick, is in identifying the difference between the two.

Anyhow – the results that he found in the Infinite ‘Prisoner’s Dillema’ was shocking.

You’d think – that the person that would kill everyone, that would betray each and every partner – would be the one, that would get ahead…

Or maybe. – it would be the person, that always gave in, and chose not to rat the other person out.

But the results were neither.

And the stories in billions, they were always about trust.

It was about who ‘was working together’ or ‘working against’ each other… and the playspace always evolving.

At times, in business – the same thing happens too.

Alliances – cooperation – competition…

These are all natural parts of life…

The lesson that I wish to give you today, is to have a realistic view of life.

Realize the type of game that you’re playing – and play it well, because at the end of the day, the more accurate you are, in your read of reality, the more likely it is – for you to succeed, in any game that you wish to play.

This is the ‘tiny’ lesson that I hope to share with you today… and, let’s just say, these ideas have served me well in the past.