This lecture introduces game theory as a framework for analyzing global events by understanding the motivations and interests of different "players" within a system. It uses the example of educational institutions to illustrate how the convergence of these players' interests, rather than ideal outcomes, shapes the actual "game" being played and explains why many systems fail to achieve their stated goals.
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Okay, so welcome back to game theory and
um as I discussed last class, our goal
is able to is to use game theory to
analyze global events to understand why
they're happening as well as make
certain predictions about how they
should develop. But to do that, I first
need to train your mind and how to and
how to see the world using game theory.
So last class in our first class we
discussed example of the dating game of
why men and women are motivated to
behave the the way they do when they
look for a mate. Today I want I want to
discuss the issue of school. Okay, school.
So uh for the first few classes I'm
going to use examples from your life
that you know pretty well in order to
develop the mindset for the game theory.
So uh school is something that you
should know very very well. As you know
the purpose of school is to train you in
a way that allows you to be functional
in society as well as to be creative.
Right? Okay. So the goals are basically literacy.
literacy.
All right. which means reading and writing.
writing.
This is the primary purpose of school
because in order to function in our
society, you need to be able to absorb
information and convey information.
Okay. Number two
is basically
uh what we call the core competent core competencies.
Okay, these are skills that you need to
be successful in life including the
ability ability to think critically to
cooperate with others
to coll to collaborate to communicate.
Okay, you you you all know this. The
last thing is what we call
lifelong learning.
So in an age of AI,
in age of globalization, school
school
is just a start of the learning process
because every 5 years the world changes.
So you need to be in a constant process,
a constant state of learning. Okay? So
you have to like actually love learning
and you have to like know how to learn
for yourself. So these these are the
three basic purposes of school. and
that's why you're at the school.
Unfortunately, what we know is that most
schools, I'm not saying all schools, I'm
saying that most schools are pretty bad
at these three things. In fact, you can
make the argument that most schools not
only do not teach you these skills, but
they have the opposite effect. In fact,
they make you hate learning. Okay, so
let's look at literacy.
Today in most schools you're not
required to read books.
In fact when you go to university
the professors there are so shocked that
you don't read books that instead they
make you read paragraphs
or watch videos. Okay. So in terms of literacy
literacy
around the world
people are losing the capacity to read
and to write.
And not only that, but people's
attention spans have decreased. It's
very hard for a professor to give you an
hour lecture.
People lose focus after about 5 minutes.
Okay? So this is one problem. Another
problem is
school is supposed to teach you
creativity, critical thinking skills,
collaboration, but it doesn't do that.
Look at collaboration. In school, it's a
competition where you believe that it's
a zero- sum game. So, for you to get
ahead, you need to screw over your classmate.
classmate.
So, class ranking is very important. So,
that's kind of odd.
Okay. And the last thing, of course, is
lifelong learning where school teaches
you to hate school and therefore teaches
you how to hate learning, especially in
China. Okay? Especially in China where
you work hard until the national
entrance examination at age 18. And then
after the exam examination ends, what do
you do? You burn your books. That's the
great ceremony here in China. Right
after the examination, you take your
books, you rip out the pages, and you
throw it in the sky to to signal your
liberation, your liberation. And you're
like, I never ever want to read a book
again. I never ever want to take a test
again. I never want to learn again.
Okay. So
around the world, most schools, not all
schools, there are there are some really
good schools out there, but most schools
are failing in their mission. School
sucks. And so the question for us today is
is
why is this the case? And so we're going
to use game theory to analyze why this
is the case. All right. [snorts] So
what I'm going to do now is I'm going to
tell you a story about myself. So the
year is 2008.
I went to Yale College, okay, in the
United States and I was English major. I
did very well in school. So I was hired
in 2008 to go to Shinjzhin in South
China and help the school Shin Middle
School build a national program to send
kids abroad. Okay. Right. So this 2008
which was a long time ago and back then
not not that many students wanted to go
abroad. There were really few
international schools. So the first
thing I did was I looked at the
situation at the school. Okay. And this
and this this this what I found. Okay.
Okay.
I found that students
even though they were going abroad maybe
about 10% of the students were planning
to go abroad. So so that's about 80
students uh each year. That's a lot.
[snorts] But the way they were going
about the process of studying abroad was
problematic. Okay. So first of all, all
they were doing was taking regular
Chinese classes [snorts]
[snorts]
and you know in Chinese classes all you
do is you sit in a room of 50 kids and
you take notes and you take tests, you
don't communicate, you don't ask
questions, you don't debate. Okay, so
that's one problem. Another problem is
that the students were spending all
their time memorizing SAT word list.
Okay, they were not reading, they were
not writing,
they were just memorizing words.
And the other thing that they did to
make their applications look good is
model United Nations. Okay,
and that's fine. Maybe some of you are
modeling United Nations and that's a
great activity but everyone was doing
it. There was absolutely no differentiation.
differentiation.
All right. So I looked at the situation.
I said no I mean you might be able to
get into a good American university
because you know these kids are very
smart but I wanted to them do well at
the university and to do well in life.
Okay. So I made certain changes to the
curriculum and to the school. Okay. So
first thing I did was I set up a seminar system.
system.
So rather than in Chinese classes, I
invited these American teachers to come
and teach seminars like we have at the
school where 10 20 kids are in a room
and they discuss books that they read
together. Okay. Um rather than SAT word
memorization, I had them read books.
Students were required to read a lot of
books. In fact, I established a 5,000
book English library at the school where
students can just go and borrow books
and read. I wanted to teach students the
joy of reading.
Um, and then in terms of activities, I
didn't want students to do M United
Nations anymore because I didn't want
kids sitting around just talking. I
wanted to let them do things. Okay. So,
I set up two new new activities. The
first is called the coffee house.
And the coffee house is is the first
coffee house in China in a Chinese high
school. There are lots of coffee houses
today, but I was the first person to set
up a coffee house where students had to
run a business. They had to work as
waiters and provide good service to
customers. And it was it was a
collaboration effort. As you can
imagine, this is great for the students
to learn collaboration, to learn
finance, to learn entrepreneurship.
Okay. So, that was a very successful activity.
activity.
Uh, do you have a question? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> I mean, was that like similar with our
moon coffee like the coffee in the west
south store?
>> Okay. Um, 2008 I was the first person to
do anything. Okay.
>> Oh, okay.
>> Okay. Just I mean like like >> similar.
>> similar.
>> Yeah. [clears throat] All right. So the
coffee house was an activity I set up
which was very successful. It's still
there today guys. If you go to middle
school you will see the coffee house
still there a long long time after I I
went away. The other thing I did was
something called the daily newspaper.
[snorts] And this was the first daily
newspaper in China in a high school and
probably maybe even around the world
where students every day had to report,
collect information, write articles,
edit and publish it and they worked
until like midnight. sometimes until 2
am and then at 7 am they had to get up
and um deliver the newspaper to all the
students and these were two very
successful activities [snorts] and
um so I understand game theoriz says
okay if you want to make this transition
from the old system to new system you
also have to establish a new culture
to allow these activities to flourish
okay and so my three major principles for
for
okay, transparency,
um innovation, openness.
openness. [snorts]
[snorts]
And so my idea was this. Rather than sub a
a
curriculum that was perfect, it would be
a curriculum that would evolve over
time. We would learn mistakes together.
We would admit these mistakes and then
we would correct them together and
that's what learning is. Okay. Okay. So
the idea of transparency [snorts] also I
made changes all the time which created
some chaos but it's a time for us to
reflect and to be resilient. And I was
very open and honest about everything
that I was doing. And this in and so
this system in a very short amount of
time even though it there were a lot of
problems in the beginning it became a
very effective system after a semester
or a year. And not only that the
students who went for this program did
very well in life. They went to Yale.
They went to they went to Wharton
Cornell and this program actually school
became the most famous program in South
China and when our students have the
best record of college admissions
in South China. Okay.
So this sounds great, right? Okay. The
problem is this. The problem is what
happened after I established the
program. The first one that happened
They said, "Get out of here." Okay.
Second of all,
the teachers, the parents, the students
were all happy to see me go. They were
like, "Get out of here. We never want to
see you again." The third thing that
happened was
I did come to a new program that was
very similar to this. Okay. But after
that, after four years of doing this and
being very successful at this, I was
never allowed to set up another program
again. No one wanted me to work in
management again.
Okay? So even though I was successful,
even though I worked really hard, even
though I was innovative, even though I
set up really the best study abroad
program in all of China, I was the
first. Everyone else copied me
afterwards. I was fired. No one wanted
me to stay and I was not allowed to do
this ever again. Why? Okay. Well, the
reason is this.
When I was doing this,
the word that everyone used to describe
me was not reformer, not visionary, not
idealist, not dreamer, but dictator. Okay.
Okay.
One other word that they used that was
that was more common was this guy's an
Okay, this guy's a complete
Okay, I don't care who you are. I don't
care who your parents are. I want you to
work hard and learn. And as you can
imagine, that pissed off a lot of
powerful people because that's not how
the game is played in China. Okay? It's
actually not the game how this game is
played anywhere in the world. The game
is not fair. The game is established by
stakeholders and they play the game
according to their interest.
Okay. So, um let's go over what
happened. All right. [snorts]
Okay. So Mike, I understand that there
and the stakeholders in game theory are
Okay, the players. And who are [snorts]
the players? Well, you have the students,
you have the parents,
you have the
um teachers,
you have [snorts] the administrators,
okay, the school leaders,
you have the government,
okay, and then you have the colleges,
okay? The college are the US colleges
where I'm trying to send my students.
Okay? So these are the players in the
game. And if you want to understand game
theory, you need you need to understand
the motivations
and interests of all the different
players that tells you why or how they
will behave the way they do. Okay. So
look, so here is my original
understanding of the players which was
clearly wrong. Okay. Because I got
fired. All right. So the students the
students wanted like love to learn
and be the best. Okay. So I thought the
students what their motivation was to be
the best possible person to work hard to
love learning to be famous to get an Ivy
League. Okay. Clearly this is wrong.
Okay. I'm saying back then what my
thinking was the parents well the
parents wanted successful kids
okay independent and they wanted phase
right so they want their kids to get
into the Ivy League
right teachers well teachers
wanted to do a good job Right?
They want to teach students. They love
teaching. They love students. They just
want to be given the space and the
opportunity to teach what their passion
is. Okay.
Administrators. Administrators. I really
didn't like administrators. So, I just
thought they were just they wanted good
results. Okay. That's all. Good results.
As long as prov as long as I provide
good results, they're happy. Okay. the
government, they wanted innovation,
Um, they wanted, you know, they want
technology, okay? They want a strong China.
China.
Colleges wanted the best possible
possible potential.
potential.
Okay? They wanted students who will be
the leaders of the future. Okay? So 2008
when I set up the program, this was my
assumptions about who the players were
and what motivated them. Okay, clearly
clearly I was wrong about who they were.
Okay, so let's go over again. Let's now
do an anal analysis of what they really
really want. Okay. And the um easy
answer is that in game theory all the
players what they're motivated in is by
achieving the best possible results by
doing the least amount of work possible.
Okay, just remember that that's a
principle here. Everyone wants to
achieve the best results by doing the
least amount of work possible. People
are lazy and people are greedy. It's
that simple, guys. Okay, so students,
they want to get in the Ivy League, but
they didn't want to work hard to get in
the Ivy League. They wanted to do as
little work as possible. And if it meant
they had to uh work hard to get Ivy
League, they they like, I don't want to
get in the Ivy League then. I'll just
get into another school because who
cares? Okay, the best possible result,
least possible work. Parents are like,
"Yeah, I can have my kid work hard, but
what's important is for me to control my
kid, right? For to make to because only
I know how to ensure my kid succeeds.
So, I need to I don't want my kids to
think critically or or be independent. I
want my kids to obey me." Now, teachers
are like, "Listen, this is a job, man."
Okay? I have kids. I don't want to work
hard. I just want to come to school, do
what I'm supposed to do, do what is
minimally required me to collect my
salary and then go home. I don't want to
teach my passion because I don't have
any passion.
Okay, administrators are like, "Oh my
god, what's important is for me to make
sure the powerful parents are happy. I
don't care about everyone else. I don't
care about poor parents. I don't care
about middle- class parents. As long as
the parents who are powerful are happy,
I keep my I can keep my job, right? The
government is like, you know what? I
don't want innovation in this country.
Even though I say I want I want it
because I don't want problems in life,
okay? I just want things to just stay
the way they are and everyone's happy.
Okay? So now we understand what
happened. All right. All right. So now
what I will show you is this. I will
show you how a game is constructed. A
game is constructed when all the
different players agree on the rules and
incentives of the game.
All right, I was an outsider. I was not
a player. I came in to construct a game
in which I felt that students would
thrive and they did thrive. But that's
not what they want. Okay? They wanted to
have control over the game. And if they
lose control, well, they call you an
they call you the outsider
an Okay. All right. So, let's
do this again.
And objectively think about
what the interests and motivations of
each player are. And when their
interests converge, that's the game they
play. All right? So you have students, parents,
parents,
uh leaders, school administrators
and then the colleges. Okay.
Okay.
Another thing that you have to do in
game theory that's very important is you
have to rank the power of uh power of
each player. Uh you have a question. government.
government.
>> Excuse me.
>> The government. Yes. Sorry. Uh you're
you're right. I I I forgot about the government.
government.
Okay. And the government.
Yeah. Another thing that that you have
to do in game theory is you have to rank
the importance of the players. Okay. So,
not all players are equal. So, in this
game theory, even though there are
students and students are the majority,
students actually don't matter. Okay.
what students actually think and want
don't actually matter. What matters of
course are the parents because the
parents pay
to play in this game and parents can
cause a lot of problems if they they
don't get what they want. Okay? So the
most important are the parents. Then you
have the teachers. Why? Because the
teachers are the ones who are
implementing the rules of the game.
Okay? The way that teachers behave
determines how this game is played.
And then these two are the most
important. Okay. Then maybe you have
administrators as well, but they're not
as important as a parents and the teachers.
teachers.
The government doesn't really matter
because they don't really care, right?
It's one school among thousands. Who
cares what the school does as long as it
doesn't cause me any problems? The
colleges don't care either. You they say
they want really passionate students who
are curious, who are match from China.
They don't care. Okay? For them, it's a
business. They just want students who
are willing to pay money to get a crappy
education in America.
All right? So, the costs don't really
matter. They'll take anyone who's
willing to pay.
And the Ivy League, yeah, everyone's
getting Ivy League, but but who do the
Ivy League want? They want people who
want to be successful in life, right?
And who are these people? Not the best
students. These are people from powerful
families. Okay? So, this game is rigged,
right? They have all this talk about,
you know, we want the best motivated
students. We want PE students who are
curious, we're passionate. It's all
nonsense. Yeah, that's not how the game
is played. So, the cards don't really
matter either. [snorts] Um, okay. So,
these are the three major players. The
parents, the teachers, administrators,
students, government, colleges, they are
in this game, they don't really matter.
Okay. So, now we're going to do is we'll
analyze the mentality, the worldview,
the interests of each player. Okay. And
again once you do that once we figure
out where they converge then we know how
the game is constructed. All right
[clears throat] so let's look at
students. Students okay I mean they want
to be popular
right so most students come to school
and actually their priority is not to
learn. The priority is to make friends
and to be popular among their friends.
Okay that that's just human nature.
That's true right? [snorts] Um then you have
have
uh please teachers
and parents. Okay, this guy this is
really important to understand. You're
not in school not to learn. You're in
school to please parents into teachers.
Why? Because parents are the ones who
pay for your way in life, right? The
ones who give you food. Teachers are the
one who gives you grades. You're not
here to learn. You're here to please
them. There's a difference. Okay? And
grades are a way of showing how well
you're pleasing the parents and the teachers.
teachers.
Okay. Is that true? All right. Um and
then you're like have fun.
Okay. And then get a good college. Okay.
Okay.
All right. So, am I missing any anything
among my students?
All right. So, but okay. I'm sure
there's more, but but let's just keep on
going. Okay. Now, parents, well, the
parents, what they want is, of course,
successful kids.
But they want successful kids not
because they believe that success will
make their kid happy. What they really
want, of course, is face, right?
right? >> [snorts]
>> [snorts]
>> They want their kid to go to the Ivory
League and they only the kid the Ivy
League provides a good education or
their kid will be happy at the Ivy
League. They just want to brag to their
relatives and their friends and their
colleagues. My kid is at Brown or
Cornell or Dartmouth.
Okay. Um but face also means to treat
education as a luxury product.
Why do parents send kids to national
schools? Not because national schools
provide a better education. It's because
international schools are more expensive
and most importantly international
schools have white faces, right? White faces.
this is the main marketing tool of
international schools, right?
They have all these white faces, white
teachers like, "Oh my god, this is a
real national school now." You don't
care if the what if the teacher actually
good at what they're doing. You don't
care if the kids are actually learning.
You don't care what the curriculum is.
You don't understand that sort of stuff.
You just understand, okay, 10 white
faces, therefore this is a good school.
It's that simple. Okay? [snorts]
And then of course you want some good outcome.
outcome.
Okay? You want you want a good outcome.
You don't care if your kid is actually
learning in school. What you want is
your kid to get good grades, to get in a
good college. Okay? These are not the
same thing, right? So that's the
parents. Then the teachers. Teachers are
really simple because teachers do this
job and for them the priority is to do
as little work as possible to get by.
Okay? I'm not saying all teachers. I'm
saying the majority of teachers in the
school are just trying to get by because
quite honestly, they have families, they
have other responsibilities. So you
don't have time to focus entirely in
school, okay? So basically just get by,
okay? Or the minimum
amount of work,
okay? You may not you may not believe
this, but like when you actually grow up
and get a job, you'll do the same thing.
Okay, just get the do a minimum amount
of work in order to get by.
um administrators they want good outcomes
outcomes
but what their real priority is to protect
protect relationship
relationship
with parents. Okay, just give parents
what they want.
Okay, their job is to sell the school.
So, so whatever parents want, you just
give it to them. And administrators
also, by the way, have families. This is
a job for them. They also just want to
get by,
okay? They're not trying to build the
best school possible. They're not trying
to change the world. They're not trying
to educate students. They're just trying
to get by, do the least amount of work
in order to
uh get by. Government is okay. They say
they want innovation, creativity,
technology, but really it's just like no
problems, guys.
Okay? As long as you don't care any
problems for us, we're happy with you.
Just stay away from us. We're happy to
not bother you. Please don't come bother
us. Yeah, that's government. Also, what
they want is for students who will also
be no problems in the future, right?
Right. So, compliance. So, as long as
schools are teaching you how to obey authority,
authority,
how to comply,
how to do what you're told, they're
happy. You're a good school. Okay?
Colleges again just want the money.
Okay? That's all they care about. If
you're willing to go to American College
and pay how much how much is is it
nowadays like 50,000 100,000 a year?
That's a lot of money, guys. Okay. If
you're willing to pay that, they'll take
you. I guarantee you. Even even if you
don't speak English, they'll take you.
So, you mentioned that earlier like the
the the purpose of education are that
three things, but now schools don't do
that. So what caused the transformation?
>> Yeah, that's a really good question.
when and also
>> yeah okay [snorts]
so what we discussed last class is the
superructure sorry
sorry superructure
superructure
is just the macro picture of a society
it's demographics how many people are
there it's economy it's politics it's
religion okay and we discuss how
societies are born they mature and then
they die. Okay. So there's actually
another way of understanding this. You
can actually use three metrics to
understand how societies develop. Okay.
openness
and energy.
Okay. So what is energy? Energy just
means you want to work hard.
Okay. you are, you believe, you're
motivated, you're driven, you work hard
all the time. And working hard just
doesn't mean like you work 12 hours. It
just means like you're focused, you're attentive,
attentive,
right? So, for example, if you're
working at a restaurant as a cook, you
want to make a really good meal. Okay?
You're energetic about it. Okay? Does
that make sense? That's energy. Okay?
So, um, openness just means that you
want to learn, you want to grow, you're
willing to admit you made a mistake and
improve on yourself. Okay. And the last
thing is cohesion where you are you see
yourself as part of a society, part of
part of a community of people and you
want your community to grow as well.
And when you have all three things
together, the schools are great. Okay?
And so, for example, go to Finland.
It's a small country, maybe about 5
million people, but the schools are
amazing. Why? Because Finland is an
energetic, open, and coy society. And
when you're hear that, what you want to
do is invest in the future. And what
that means is you want you have to make
sure that every child not just your
child but every child has good future
has good education. And so what you do
is you have your best and brightest
become teachers,
right? You pay them very well. You give
them high status and you give them a lot
And if you do that, the schools are
great. And guess what guys? in China
in maybe 1980s, the schools were amazing
here. Okay,
what we're seeing today is today. But if
you go back to the 1980s, the schools
were really good. If you went to a
school in China, I'm I'm not talking
about like the best. I'm just talking
about like an average school, teachers
felt respected.
They believed that the responsibility to
train the young. They took pride
and joy in their work and the students
enjoyed learning. And guess what? Back
in 1980s, kids did less work.
There were less tests, there was less
pressure and they learn a lot more. Okay?
Okay?
So when a society be starts
and begins, you have these three
aspects. But over time,
what happens is all three decline.
Why? Because
there's more corruption, there's more
inequality, there's more wealth. Okay?
So, what happens is wealth generation
and inequality, corruption,
and so people feel under stress. Okay?
So, rather than cohesion, you have
individualization, individual.
Okay? Does that make sense? Where
everyone's like, you know what? I don't
care if other kids are doing well.
What's important is that my kid does
well because it's a zero- sum game. If
if if all the other kids in the school
do really well, but my kid flunks out,
I'm dead. I'm screwed. So, I rather my
kid do okay and every other kid gets
screwed over. Okay. So, now it's a competition
competition
in schools.
All right. Openness. Are you willing to
learn from your mistakes? And the answer
is no. Because if I'm an administrator
and I say to parents, "I'm sorry. I made
a mistake today." The parents will be
like, "You're fired. Get out of here.
You're incompetent." Okay? So, you could
be like the best person in the world,
but if you make make a mistake, the
parents will come and kill you. But if
you you but you could be the worst
person in the world, but you just hide
in your office. The parents can't find
you. You're okay. Okay. So, school
administrators are are are now afraid to
admit they're wrong, which means that a
school can never improve.
Right? Then you have energy which is
like you know what if I do a good job
parents will want me to do a better job.
I can't please all the parents. So I'll
just hide my office do as little work as
possible and then if parents complain
I'll just shut off my brain. Okay. And
this is happening because
of wealth generation. 1980s China was
really poor.
And no only way to get to to lead a
better life is through education. That's
why students work hard. If students work
hard, teachers are motivated to teach
well. And now you having a time when you
know today in 2025 26 when parents have
money. So it doesn't matter if you don't
do well in school because your parents
can just give you an apartment, can buy
you a car.
Who cares if you do well in school? So
you're not motivated. If you're not
motivated, indifferent, then as a
teacher, why am I going to want to
teach? Well,
okay. So it's a super structure of
society. Okay. Does does that make sense?
sense?
All right. Any more questions?
Okay. Okay. So So thank you. Okay. So again
um
superructure determines the motivations
of the players and where the interest of
the players converge is the game that
you have. Okay. All right. So you go
back to this list and what we're seeing is
parents just want white faces.
Okay, sorry. white faces
and they want
um successful kids which means good grades.
grades.
Okay. Um parents teachers just want to
get by and do as little work as
possible. The ministry just want to
protect relationship with parents. Okay.
And so when you do this convergence this
Okay.
schools in China, international schools
in China, by the way. And again, this is
like the majority. I'm not saying it's
every school, but I'm saying it's the
majority. Okay? What you have are white faces,
easy grades, right? It's really easy to
get a good grade. All right. Um,
some top students,
these students are given scholarships
and then they're sent to top universities.
universities.
Okay. And high turnover
where students leave, teachers leave,
but new ones come in. So, who cares?
Okay. And this is what it looks like.
This this what happens when you take the
interests of these different players,
you converge them together. And this is
what what schools look like today.
There's lots of white faces, lots of
really nice buildings, lots of fancy activities,
activities,
great marketing, beautiful website,
really motivate admissions officers.
Then you have easy grades where everyone
gets an A no matter what you do. Um, you
have some top students who will get into
good school so that um the the school
can brag about them. You have lots of
cheating going on. Okay, if you don't
get a good grade, just complain and
you'll get a good grade. Okay, so that
happened to me at the school where I
tried my first year to give um fair
grades. Okay, and a fair grade is not
like I I give you a 20. I give you like
an 80 and students complain about me. So
now, so I'm stuck giving them like a
pass fail, right? So it's not hard for
students to get to pass. If you don't
like a teacher, just complain and then
the teacher has to change. And so you
now you have high ch turnover where
teachers feel stressed out and where
parents are never happy and where
students don't care. Okay?
Okay?
Doesn't make sense. This is why schools
suck. And I'm I'm saying they suck not
just in China, not just in our schools,
but in most places around the world. And
it has to do with the superstructure of society.
society.
Okay. But what but I I mean like the
point of today's class is not like
schools suck, don't go to school. The
point of today's class is we're trying
to analyze
why schools are the way they are. And
one way to analyze it is by figuring out
what at what point, okay,
do the different players converge, right?
right?
So think of you have different sets, right?
Okay. Parents, teachers,
teachers, [snorts]
[snorts]
students, government,
ecologist. Okay. And their convergence
point is the game they play.
Okay. Now, what's important for us to
understand is that there is actually a
lot of room to this convergence point.
So it's possible to do reform but only
within a subset of
of this convergence point.
Okay. So my problem is back in 2008 I
was like you know what I'm going to set
up a new universe
my own world. I'll make up the rules.
I'll be god and you just have to play
the game. I tell you to play the game.
Okay. That's why everyone is like you're an
an
Okay, whatever you do, whatever game you
set up has to be within this conversion
point in order for players to accept it.
Okay, and this is true for everything.
If you want to implement political
reform anywhere, you have to figure out
where the different stakeholders
converge and figure out how to move the
stakeholders from one part of the
convergence point to another part of the
conver convergence point. Okay, this
slow incremental reform.
Okay, does that make sense? Okay, any
guys ask questions?
What what was this clear?
So in the future will we learn more
about how do we find out what causes
different stakeholders to have different
interests like in the future? It's like
not really really
>> okay. Yeah, that's a really good
question. So so thank you for asking. Okay.
Okay. All right.
All right.
So the question is
where do the interest
of these different players come from?
Okay. And
I mean the easy answer is the super
structure of society. Okay, people are
responding to their culture.
But in game theory, what I want to teach
you is that it's because they themselves
are playing different games.
[snorts] Okay, parents have different
identities. They are um family,
they are colleagues.
Okay. And depending on on on their
identity, they're playing a different
game. All right. So, what does family
family mean? Family means that you
um might have brothers, right? Brothers.
What do brothers do? They compete
against each other, right? You have
three brothers. You want to prove that
you're better than your brother. How?
Well, by having more money, by having
better kids, by having a more beautiful
wife. Okay, that's a game they're playing,
playing,
right? Um, but then you have colleagues.
You have colleagues
and the game you're trying to play there
is get along your colleagues because
that that's what ensures your success in
life. Okay? So you need to make sure
that your child no matter how he or she
is educated is able to become friends
with the sons and daughters of your colleagues.
colleagues. Okay?
Okay?
So because this is what ensures success.
All right? And so there are other games
as well. But but you understand this
right? You understand how parents so
calculation isn't just like my kid I
want my kid to be successful. No, no.
You're thinking about how to play
different games and be successful in
other games, right? Because if you if
your kid becomes very successful but not
in a way that pleases the colleagues,
you become you can be thrown out of the
game. Okay. The people that the thing
that people fear the most is the idea of
aization. Okay.
or basically just exile
where you are no longer part of the
group. They kick you out as a player. Okay,
Okay,
that's what people are afraid of and
that's why people are motivated by what
they do because they're trying to
they're trying as hard as possible to to
play the game
and get along with other other players
while at the same time competing against
them. So so it's a weird psychology.
Okay, you're trying to beat them. At the
same time, you don't want to piss them
off and get thrown out of the game. Okay,
Okay,
and this is what prevents the idea of cheating.
But from the perspective of the game, if
you're doing anything different, that's
still cheating.
Okay? Because so another way of saying
this is a lot of the rebellion against
what I was doing as a reformer is I was
subverting traditional Chinese values.
Okay. I was arguing against the norms,
the values,
the conventions of this country. And
it's and so if people believed in me
then they risk themselves being
ostracized by the larger community.
Okay, does that make sense? All right,
so that's parents. Then you have um
um um
um
right. Okay, but students, right? So
students they're trying to play a game
where they do well in school because
that ensures a good outcome but at the
same time students play other games as
well. So for for example a friendship
game right where you're trying to have
as many friends as possible. You're
trying to be popular in school. That's
another game you play. You're also
trying to please your parents
right because by pleasing your parents
that ensures that you have an easy
comfortable [music] life. In fact you
could argue that of these three games
pleasing your parents is the most
important. Then comes um having good
friends because [music] that will also
ensure your success in life. And the and
the game that you care the least about
that matters the least is actually doing
all in school learning learning in school.
school. Okay.
Okay.
Does does that make sense? So game
theory it sounds easy but it's very very
complicated because we're complicated individuals.
individuals.
Each one of us has different identities,
has different motivations, and has
different outlooks. And and also what's
really important for us to understand is
we're always changing as people. Okay?
So the way that you behaved in
kindergarten is not the way you behave
today in high school, it will not be the
way you behave when you enter society.
You're always changing because the game
is always changing. You must adapt to
new games that have different players
and have new requirements. Okay. So
that's wonderful about us where we are easily
easily
adaptable where we are we are resilient
okay but um we are always changing
according to the game and and
we are who we are is often determined by
the nature of the game. Okay. So you
could have come into school
wanting to learn, being creative and all
that, but eventually you you recognize
that that's not really rewarded in
school. All right? Getting along, having
lots of friends, doing helping other
students cheat, that's rewarded. And so
you adapt to the game and that's why you
behave the way you do. Okay? And if you
actually go back and think about
everything that you did in school,
the answer is you're responding to a
certain incentive or rule of the game. Okay?
Okay?
And that's what you need to that's what
we need to understand
about game theory.
Game theory, it's not about ideas. It's
not about ideals. It's not the way
things should be. It's the way things
are. And the way things are are
determined by who players are and the
way players behave
um is a response to their the game they
believe they're playing. Okay, does that
make sense? Okay, so so thank you. Any
Okay, great. So um we will continue this
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