Saturday, March 31, 2007

Even a 5 year old knows game theory



Before I rattle off this story (which some of you must have heard by now), I like to bring attention to the "pet" on the right. Please play with it when you visit my blog as I probably won't be spending too much time on it. Of course, I am doing free advert for the creator, and if you peeps ever want to adopt the pet which I have on my blog, feel free to click the link. (do drop me a msg on msn or whatever if you don't know how to embed them).
Ironically, a couple of days ago, my mum found a lost dog and brought it home. For a brief 24 hour, I had a maltese. Good news is, I think its much better than the dogs which some of my friends have. One of the dogs look totally crazy, the one other look totally stupid. This is small, white and hairy and well trained. It knows how to beg for food by hopping around on 2 legs. Not too bad. But of course, in less than a day, the owner collected it back. So no more dogs. Being me, actually, I am more than happy that the gone is. a) i didn't like to leash the dog up. b) so when i am alone with the dog, i let it out of the provisional cage. c) so whilst i was doing my work in the morning, i got stared by the dog which makes me feel totally awkward, i like privacy and i don't like it if my privacy is disturbed, even by animals.
the main story, i saw a 5 year old kid on the train yesterday. i cannot help but comment about this kid cause he has just trigger so much in me. being a typical 5 year old, he wants his mum to play scissors paper stone with him. he wanted to win, so he told his mum to put stone. round 1: the boy puts paper and the mum puts scissors (horrible mum right? cheated his own son). so the boy was rather unhappy that his mum lied. he told his mum to put stone again. round 2: the mum once again cheated, put scissors. Guess what the boy put? stone! oh my god, so smart, he knew his mum is gonna cheat on him and pre empted it.
on hindsight, i realise alot of thought has behind that "stone" which the boy put for round 2. what he has just did was actually part of game theory. something which economists have won noble prizes for, but in actual fact its something which many of us already know. Realise that in the above mentioned situation, the boy should always put stone regardless of what the mum does. cos stone gives him the best out come. If the mum listens to him and put stone, he draws, but if the mum defects and put scissors, he wins. let's examine another combination, if the boy puts paper. if the mum listens, he wins and if the mum defects he loses. If the boy puts scissors, if the mum listens, he loses, and if the mum defects he draws. I didn't realise it until the boy showed me. WOW. actually, upon doing that, i realised there is a way to play scissors paper stones with nerd, or at least, i have hypothesize a way, the next thing i would need is to get a pool of nerds to try it out.


posted @ 4:59 PM ||



Saturday, March 17, 2007

Brain dead, but squeezing the last brain juice to blog



There is always something evil about me which many people do not seem to be able to know. But more importantly, the evilness branch from 2 character traits which should be quite obvious to many of you all.
first and foremost, i am a very dominant person. i think i have hide it quite abit, but i certainly do not feel i had hide it well. i like to call the shots, not just in my own life, but the lives of my peers and people who surrounds me. and the way i call the shots can be explicit but more often than not, its subtle. i really feel rotten about doing that, how i really manipulate my own peers to acheive what i had in mind. no doubt, the bottomline is, i won't do anything to harm them, but i guess sometime, its better to consult them before making any decisions.
secondly, i lead a very fast paced life. everything about me is really about getting the same thing that other can do in half the time required and then move on. few people i know (in fact, none) had lead my pace of life. i mean, i may look laid back when i walk and stuff, but when it comes to action, i am quite clear as to what i am doing. i guess with such a pace of life, its hard to find myself a fit, even as friend, and needless to say finding one whom i can take it to another level will virtually be impossible. in fact, as i am saying, i am running through how much i had given up. "search" theory? winner's curse? seems to apply in almost all the case in lives, but the bottomline might just be i am using that as a lame excuse to slack off.


posted @ 12:32 AM ||



Sunday, March 11, 2007

WCG 2007



Yes, I had just done my first big event as the president of a club (which explains why the huge time difference betweeen this post and the previous post, yes I was busy). Hmm, as usual, many things happen, i don't even know how to start (there is nothing organized about what goes through in my mind).
Surprisingly, my team which were formed last minute qualified for the finals by the slightest of all margin. The team is only 1 week old, and based on the rules of the game, fastest qualifier enter the final straight. The defending champion timing was 49:35 (already quite fast by Dota standard). In fact they were so confident of their time that the team were even prepared to reach school in time for the playoff, which starts at 4:00pm. My team didn't do too well on friday either (with me being the weakest link, after which we went back, and I got screwed badly and I had to train until 3am with them before they are satisfied with me and allow me to sleep.) My match which ended at 49:18, much to the defending champion shock, one of the team member is a friend, as I was chatting with her on our way back, she told me, they didn't expect to be even playing my teams in the final based on our performance on friday. Arrogance, I will say. As expected, they were late. At 4:45pm on saturday, the same guy told me that everyone is here to have fun, why go to such hard extend by abiding to the rules? See the change in tone? I did ask myself what I stand to gain, my answer is... nothing. This guy is not the appreciative sort of person. He is just stuck up, and in my opinion, I think he is rotten to the core (the only thing which separates him from typical bad guy out there is he lacks GUTS). On a more serious note, I felt sorry for my team, my team deserves abit more. These bunch of people may not have the skills, but they have very strong mentality. Honestly, their determination and their fighting spirits hits me. I have long given up on playing competitive already, but i see something in this bunch of people which convinced to say, hey, i have a series of dota competition this year in smu, why not we stick together as a team for this whole year?
On the other hand, this whole event has been a tiring experience, to juggle between organising and participating. Though I did feel that I have done too much. Yeah, my task delegation ability is kinda bad. I ain't a hero which can work 24 hours a day. But somehow, its a weird feeling when your entire effective committee are all your own friends. Its get into a dilemma, on one hand, i feel bad passing them work, on the other hand, i don't have the time to do everything myself. I also want to expose my own friends to the dealings i have gone through (which i hadn't done so at all for this event). But i realise, it is important for them to get the big picture, so they do not conflict and they can have a better understanding of the problem i faced (which many do not know). Like sponsorship pull out, negotiating with student association for money and of course... the infamous "空城计". Yes, I did it again. hahahaha.
Which brings me to my next point, even though this is an internal event, I am surprise at the number of external people which came down during the event itself. Vr Zone, Frujch and even Punggol CC. I have yet to lay out the work plan for my year as president, but it looks like a big piece of mess. I have to get a Fifa competition ongoing, a Singtel Gaming Cup, MDA is interested to work with us too. Sometime it just gets totally weird as to how the cca is run. It just make cca in secondary and jc look so easy. No matter what happen back then, the teachers are our last line of defense. For now, why do i think that i am the last line of defense for my club?


posted @ 11:24 AM ||



Profile
name: Tianyu

Passion: Maths, Music, Table Tennis
sex: M
philosophy: many people knows different part of me, but one thing in common is i will not allow myself to fall
*Elandriel*

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