Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Prisoner's dilemma tournament results - Less Wrong

32 Post author: AlexMennen 09 July 2013 08:50PM

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Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 11 July 2013 06:50:05PM *  5 points [-]

Yes, that game. My point is that complaining "that's not fair, X player wasn't playing to win" is a failure to think like reality. You know that you're playing against humans, and that humans do lots of things, including playing games in a way that isn't playing to win. You should be taking that into account when modeling the likely distribution of opponents you're going to face. This is especially true if there isn't a strong incentive to play to win.

Comment author: Quinn 11 July 2013 07:25:00PM 1 point [-]

Yes, and I agree with this. I'm familiar with Straw Vulcanism and accept that guessing incorrectly is my mistake, not others'.

It seems anger and frustration were read into my comment, when in fact I was merely surprised, so I've edited out the offending t-word.