Traveller’s Dilemma

October 30th, 2007 popscience

Scientific American published an article on game theory in their June issue called The Traveller’s Dilemma by Kaushik Basu, the game creator.

Lucy and Pete, returning from a remote Pacific island, find that the airline has damaged the identical antiques that each had purchased. An airline manager says that he is happy to compensate them but is handicapped by being clueless about the value of these strange objects. Simply asking the travelers for the price is hopeless, he figures, for they will inflate it. Instead he devises a more complicated scheme. He asks each of them to write down the price of the antique as any dollar integer between 2 and 100 without conferring together. If both write the same number, he will take that to be the true price, and he will pay each of them that amount. But if they write different numbers, he will assume that the lower one is the actual price and that the person writing the higher number is cheating. In that case, he will pay both of them the lower number along with a bonus and a penalty–the person who wrote the lower number will get $2 more as a reward for honesty and the one who wrote the higher number will get $2 less as a punishment. For instance, if Lucy writes 46 and Pete writes 100, Lucy will get $48 and Pete will get $44.

The article goes on to talk about why the clearly rational choice is $2 and points out that selecting a number closer to $100 is a non-rational choice which reaps greater reward. What if the reason for the non-rationality is because of the game? That is, irrationality is a strategy choice to throw off the other players?

Let’s say the antiques are worthless, something picked up at the junkyard, and the manager is giving me money for nothing. My thinking goes like this. The penalty of $2 isn’t a lot. If the penalty is bigger, would I be more concerned and the choices of numbers naturally whittles to the logical choice? Let’s say we add a few more zeros to the problem, for instance, $100,000,000 with a penalty of $50,000,000, my initial guess would remain at $100,000,000 because there is a possibility the other chap will state the same amount. Neither of us may win but to make myself feel better, I think to myself that at least I got a large sum of money for nothing even if I’m not maximising my payout, and this payout is greater than the penalty amount.

Geoffrey Miller pointed out that irrational behaviour in evolution helps species to avoid predators. In this instance, by choosing an irrational choice in this game, I can still persuade myself that it is a good outcome because it is in fact better than the equilibrium outcome.

Aside:Geoffrey Miller was at strip clubs for the purpose of science (pdf format), found on of Scientific American’s 60 Second Science.

More of me in love with bloomberg

October 29th, 2007 atwork

On the way home, with my mom at the wheel, I gushed enthusiastically about the bloomberg machine in the next office. “There’s art news, book news, and prices of every thing that was ever sold in the markets from the first trading day to the last. And,” said I dramatically, “and it takes all these prices and draws them on a chart for you in whatever currency you want! Analysis!”
“这么好啊!”
“你看! Wait, maybe not.”
“是什么?”
“I told you about that US Index fund sold in USD and SGD? I put into the machine and convert them into the same currency for comparison and look here! The return gap grows bigger and bigger. These people are cheating me money!”
“Really?”
“I don’t know. I think so. I have to look at the charts again. Or maybe just write a letter to them to ask.”

Framing Art

October 14th, 2007 elsewhere

I was on the Bloomberg machine when I found a film review for My Kid Could Paint That. More reviews from IHT, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe and NYT.

On Children creating Art: Children do enjoy colours and art lessons but their creations are not art. Even a child prodigy who has a talent and sensitivity for a thing does not at a young age create art. Even if the child were to be subjected to unpleasant lie detector tests and passed it with flying colours, I wouldn’t think it was art. Art is for the damaged and the hurt, created by the damaged and the hurt. At a young age, we could only observe and try to render our observations. Only when older, that we try to assign symbols and meanings to the work to create more layers in the same piece, to show the world using our eyes. That is art.

On the film: It is interesting to me that people wonder about the veracity of the art pieces. I suppose if the art pieces were did by the child but helped/coached by an adult perhaps they would feel cheated, like the readers of the false biography by JT Leroy/Laura Alberts. It illustrates for me the need for people to frame art into a context and by this framing, art becomes a reminder – of hope/beauty/a version of truth/etc, of their own lives, someone else’s life, of some person or thing or moment. That’s very sweet and touching.

Bloomberg commands

October 9th, 2007 atwork

Lately the interns next door have been stuck at the bloomberg doing real work so I haven’t had the chance to catch up on my slacking. I love being there running stuff. I have found happy accidents when I mistype company names on Bloomberg. Star in the command line throws up the horoscope page. Art throws up links to Muse art news, which you can select to read literary gossip, or theatre reviews,etc. Or if one was in a mood for serious study, typing up odd things like VAR, Beta, and ‘help’ will throw up articles helpful to insomniacs. It’s like the internet – only better!

Lust, Caution

October 7th, 2007 screen

I love Lee Ang’s movies – it’s always the same message but I like the message to want to watch his movies. I adore Tony Leung since the old days of Zhang Wuji. I am all set to love the show and to rave about it here. Perhaps I should not have seen it, then in my mind it would exist as a heartbreakingly moving film that no one film, other than Brokeback Mountain, can beat it.

I didn’t understand the film at all. What the hell were the two characters on about? The girl, Mrs Mak/Wang Chi Chia, she hated him or didn’t? Why did she want him dead? She loved the resistance cell leader all along, or fell out of love? The mysterious Mr Yee had two other beautiful secret agents who were trying scheme his downfall so why the hell did this one succeed? In what way was it different? Is he that sadistic – because Tony Leung just made him look sad. I also got confused when I saw the picture of Sun Yet Sun in the study of Mr Yee. I think I got it right that the resistance were Nationalists, not Communists, so why was the picture there?

As the show moves along, the characters said lines to suggest that they have fallen for each other, and they are behaving incautiously and with love, which should logically lead to their downfall. That all happened but I am unconvinced they were in love. I thought the Mrs Mak/Wang Chi Chia felt sorry for Yee. I thought Yee was feeling sorrier for himself for losing a pet – but he’ll find another.

I like some bits of the show – that both never said each other’s real names. I thought that was poignant. I also like that they played mahjong a lot. The point and introduction was made with finesse. But there were too many questions after the movie. While I really wanted to like it, I don’t like things I don’t get.

Replacement Moleskines and real life fountain pen lovers

October 2nd, 2007 TreatsTags: Pens

A poster on FPN shared that the Society for the Physically Disabled runs a store (it’s online as well) that has book bind services. So if you have some good paper, they can turn it into a journal. They only work on weekdays:
8.30am – 11.30am
2.30pm – 4.30pm

It was suggested that Rhodia(sold in Kinokuniya) has good paper and can easily be transformed into a moleskine replacement by these talented individuals. Most importantly, these journals will lie flat.

~

There is one monthly meeting that I enjoy attending: the CEO brings along a fountain pen to write with and I have fun checking out his pens. I’ve only seen three so far as I’m new with the organisation.

A Pilot Capless Carbonesque black
A Namiki Maki-e range (sitting too far away so I can’t tell which one it is)
A Lamy Safari black

I took 2 hours ages to figure out that the black dull looking pen he brought for today’s meeting was a Lamy. I simply could not believe it. Chap’s a CEO, right? Lamys are fairly affordable (cheap) pens, right? Lamys and CEO doesn’t compute. Guess I’m wrong. He does like fountain pens. Heh. I’ve never met a fountain pen fancier in real life.

I’ve stopped lusting for new pens, which is a pity. I bring two for work (the Capless in mustard yellow and the Sailor 1911) and keep two by the bed (Pelikan M400 and M250). The Sailor 1911 music nib that I have is not much used and bought because it was unusual – just like the oblique broad from Pelikan. I am too used to this rotation and I can’t think what to do with a new pen.