Comment on The 5-Second Level

Mon, 09 May 2011 06:29:39 GMT

I'm not sure if you understand the real point of precommitment. The idea is that your strategic position may be stronger if you are conditionally committed to act in ways that are irrational if these conditions are actually realized. Such precommitment is rational on the whole because it eliminates the opponent's incentives to create these conditions, so if the strategy works, you don't actually have to perform the irrational act, which remains just a counterfactual threat.

I agree with what you are saying and would perhaps have described it as "ways that would otherwise have been irrational".

Discuss