There are two ways to enter a pool: dive into the deep end or wade in from the shallow. Stories work the same way. A cold open throws readers into the deep end-action, conflict, mystery-with no preamble. A warm open lets readers acclimate-introducing character, setting, voice-before complications arise. Neither is inherently better. The choice depends on what your story needs and what your reader expects. The Cold Open: Immediate Immersion Definition A cold open begins mid-crisis: ...

Mixed Strategies: Why You Should Be Unpredictable You’ve learned about dominant strategies and Nash equilibria in pure strategies. But what happens when there’s no pure strategy Nash equilibrium? What if being predictable is your worst enemy? Welcome to the world of mixed strategies - where randomness becomes your most powerful weapon. The Problem with Being Predictable Imagine you’re a goalkeeper facing a penalty kick. You can dive left or right. The striker can shoot left or right. If you both go the same way, the striker scores. If you guess correctly, you save. ...

Repeated Games: How Cooperation Emerges from Self-Interest In the Prisoner’s Dilemma, rational players defect. In the Tragedy of the Commons, rational actors destroy shared resources. One-shot game theory seems to paint a bleak picture: selfishness always wins. But real life isn’t a series of one-shot games. We interact with the same people, companies, and countries repeatedly. And this changes everything. Welcome to repeated games - where cooperation emerges not from altruism, but from enlightened self-interest. ...

The Tragedy of the Commons: When Self-Interest Destroys Everything Imagine a village where everyone shares a common grazing field. Each villager rationally decides to add one more cow to maximize their profit. Each individual decision makes sense. But collectively, they destroy the field that sustains them all. This is the Tragedy of the Commons - one of the most important concepts in game theory, economics, and environmental science. It explains why rational individuals often destroy the very resources they depend on. ...

The Ultimatum Game: Are Humans Really Rational? Imagine this: I give you $100 and ask you to propose how to split it with a stranger. There’s one catch - if the stranger rejects your offer, neither of you gets anything. Game theory predicts you’ll offer $1 and keep $99. After all, $1 is better than $0, so the stranger should accept. In reality? Most people offer $40-50, and offers below $30 are frequently rejected. ...

Why does everyone in the United States drive on the right side of the road? Not because it’s better than driving on the left-the British drive on the left and do just fine. We drive on the right because everyone else drives on the right. This is a coordination game-a situation where the key is not beating others, but matching them. These games are everywhere, and they reveal fascinating insights about how societies form conventions, standards, and norms. ...

Imagine a game where one strategy is best no matter what your opponent does. You don’t need to predict their behavior, guess their intentions, or outthink them. You just pick the dominant strategy and you’re done. This is the simplest situation in game theory-and when you have a dominant strategy, your decision becomes trivial. Let’s understand this powerful concept. What is a Dominant Strategy? A dominant strategy is a strategy that gives you a better outcome than any other strategy, regardless of what your opponents do. ...

John Nash won the Nobel Prize for an idea so simple you can explain it in 5 minutes. Yet this idea revolutionized economics, predicted Cold War outcomes, explains why you’re stuck in traffic, and even helps explain evolution. Let’s understand Nash Equilibrium-the most important concept in game theory. The Core Idea (In One Sentence) A Nash Equilibrium is a situation where no player can improve their outcome by changing their strategy alone-everyone is doing the best they can given what everyone else is doing. ...

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before the American people and did something remarkable for a politician: he admitted total failure. The Bay of Pigs invasion-a CIA-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro-had been an utter disaster. Over 1,400 Cuban exiles were captured or killed. It was a humiliating defeat, just three months into Kennedy’s presidency. Kennedy didn’t deflect. He didn’t blame his predecessor. He didn’t hide behind classified briefings. ...

Imagine you and a partner are arrested for a crime. The police separate you into different rooms and offer each of you the same deal. You can’t communicate. You don’t know what your partner will do. And the choice you make will determine whether you go free or spend years in prison. Welcome to the most famous problem in game theory: the Prisoner’s Dilemma. It reveals a disturbing truth about rational decision-making that explains everything from climate change to price wars to why your office kitchen is always dirty. ...