Mental Models Weekly

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Zero-Sum Game 🥧

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Zero-Sum Game 🥧

Issue #10

Julia Clavien
Jul 28, 2018
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Zero-Sum Game 🥧

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If you don’t already know this week’s model, you may well have heard of it before. It’s a key concept from game theory to add to your growing mental set of models! 🧠

What is a Zero-Sum Game?

A situation in which one person or group can win something only by causing another person or group to lose it.

Often to explain zero-sum games a pie is discussed. Let's imagine it in the literal sense - we're both hungry and we get a pie to share. If I go ahead and scarf down most of it and only leave you a few crumbs and you're left hungry, we've just experience a zero-sum game. For one person (or side) to win, another must lose. It's a win-lose situation.

What about Non-Zero-Sum Game?

In contrast, non-zero-sum games (sometimes called positive-sum games) can be win-win situations. These are the type of situations that make the figurative pie bigger. International trade is a commonly used example - both countries can benefit via import and export of goods.

I wonder if Aristotle was thinking about a non-zero-sum game when he wrote:

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Photo by Alex Loup on Unsplash
Photo by Alex Loup on Unsplash

Why is this interesting?

Can you notice anything in your life that's a zero-sum game? 

What about non-zero-sum games? Maybe from personal relationships or high performance work teams?

It's worth being aware that we have a tendency to be somewhat biased in our assessment! So watch out for Zero-Sum Thinking:

A general belief system about the antagonistic nature of social relations, [...] based on the implicit assumption that a finite amount of goods exists in the world, in which one person’s winning makes others the losers, and vice versa [...]

a relatively permanent and general conviction that social relations are like a zero-sum game. People who share this conviction believe that success, especially economic success, is possible only at the expense of other people’s failures.

Want to go deeper?

📙 Here's an interactive (math heavier) deeper dive into game theory if you're keen!

🎥 Or if you want a more fun way to learn a little more about game theory you must watch the magnificent movie - A Beautiful Mind.

I’m loving hearing your thoughts and reflections on the models, by both email 📧 - just hit reply - and via twitter - 🐦@juliaclavien!

Wishing you a week of growing the pie dear Mental Modelers! 🙇 

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Zero-Sum Game 🥧

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