Dominant Strategies: The Easy Way to Win Every Time

    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. ...

    January 22, 2025 · 9 min · Rafiul Alam

    Nash Equilibrium Explained in 5 Minutes

    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. ...

    January 22, 2025 · 8 min · Rafiul Alam

    Zero-Sum Games: When Your Win is My Loss

    In poker, every dollar you win comes from someone else’s loss. In chess, one player wins and one loses. In tennis, your point is your opponent’s lost opportunity. These are zero-sum games—pure competition where one player’s gain equals another’s loss. Understanding zero-sum games changes how you compete, negotiate, and think about conflict. Let’s explore this fundamental concept. What is a Zero-Sum Game? A zero-sum game is a situation where the total gains and losses always sum to zero. Whatever one player wins, another must lose. ...

    January 22, 2025 · 9 min · Rafiul Alam

    Go Design Pattern: Strategy

    📚 Go Design Patterns 🎯Behavioral Pattern ← Builder Pattern 📋 All Patterns Decorator Pattern → What is Strategy Pattern? The Strategy pattern is a behavioral design pattern that defines a family of algorithms, encapsulates each one, and makes them interchangeable. It lets you select algorithms at runtime without altering the code that uses them. Think of it like choosing different routes to reach the same destination - each route (strategy) gets you there, but some might be faster, cheaper, or more scenic. ...

    February 13, 2024 · 9 min · Rafiul Alam