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. ...
I checked Twitter 47 times yesterday. Not because I needed information. Not because I was expecting something important. Just… checking. Pull down to refresh. Scan. Nothing interesting. Close app. Five minutes later: Open app. Pull down to refresh. Scan. Find one mildly interesting tweet. Read. Close app. Repeat. All day. I wasn’t looking for something specific. I was looking for the possibility of something interesting. And that’s exactly how Twitter (and every other addictive app) is designed to work. ...
I once turned down a $40,000 freelance contract because I was afraid of losing my $80,000 salary. The math was simple: take the contract, it would take 3 months, that’s $160k annualized. Way better than my salary. But my brain didn’t see “$160k potential.” It saw “giving up the guaranteed $80k.” The fear of losing my steady paycheck was stronger than the excitement of potentially making more. I said no. The person who took the gig finished it in 2 months, got referred to three more clients, and now runs a six-figure freelance business. ...