“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” - Benjamin Franklin, polymath and one of the founding fathers of the US
This week, I’m experimenting with a random mix of totally unrelated topics. The golden thread is that they are timeless and should in some way contribute I hope to your latticework of knowledge. If a topic doesn’t strike your fancy, skip to the next.
An introduction to game theory
I often hear of game theory touted as a tool that can serve as a strategic advantage in life. One advocate is Naval Ravikant, whose wisdoms I consider to be one of the internet's treasures. I had little to no knowledge of the topic, so I did some reading.
Game theory studies strategy-setting techniques to ensure optimal decision making in an environment where players make interdependent decisions. So, in deciding my own course of action, I'm thinking about the other player's probable decision. In doing so, I must consider that the other player is considering my thinking, but also contemplating my thinking about their thinking, etc. You see how this can get complicated.
There is no single game theory, with various ideas applicable to a multitude of situations. One contributing factor is the number of participants. Another is the availability of information. For example, in chess, I have a full view of my opponent's position, but in poker, the opponent's hand is unknown. Cooperative or noncooperative games depend on whether or not participants can communicate and make agreements (e.g. coalitions in Survivor). Then there are zero-sum games where the pot is fixed, and my gain is your loss (e.g. sports), or positive-sum games where we can both be winners or losers (e.g. competing businesses that have conflicting interest, but both stand to gain from a growing market).
More well-known examples of game theory are the prisoner's dilemma and the Nash Equilibrium. The latter named after John Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician whose life was portrayed in the movie, A Beautiful Mind. Be warned that diving deeper into this topic becomes complex and mathematical with many strategies to decipher. The key insight I gained from researching the topic is recognising the different types of games in day to day life, from sports to politics to business. If you're looking for a practical example, I found Simon Sinek's talk on the Cold War intriguing.
With a basic knowledge of the topic, I'll be testing its practical uses to determine if it warrants further examining. To be continued.
A story in pictures: The fighter planes of WW2
I have a WW2 fetish. I literally can’t get enough of this endlessly fascinating topic. But more on that for a future post. Although I’ve always known that my grandfather was a pilot during the war, I only recently discovered that he flew Spitfires (the British RAF's iconic fighter planes). Technological advances in aviation played a critical role in the war, with some battles fought almost exclusively in the air. Here’s a look at the most famous fighter planes of the various forces.
British Supermarine Spitfire
German Messerschmitt Bf109
Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero
American P-51 Mustang
Soviet Yakovlev Yak-9
PS - If you want to learn more about the Battle of Britain, check out episode 2 of the Greatest Events of WW2 on Netflix. It’s great.
Understanding everyday things: Blood pressure
In a recent discussion, the topic of blood pressure came up. After trying to explain what it was as “the amount of pressure in your blood”, I realized I was clueless. So again, I went digging to enhance my understanding of something that seems to be pretty important.
Your heart serves a big pump pushing blood through your body to your organs. It beats around 100 000 times a day (for your entire life), dispensing 260 litres of blood per hour. It takes about 45 seconds for blood to circulate from the heart, all around the body, and back to the heart again. Think of another machine that works with such force and precision for such an extended period of time. A miraculous feat of engineering actually. When our hearts contract, it pushes blood into the body (systolic pressure), and when it relaxes, it refills (diastolic pressure). A blood pressure reading is given in millimetres of mercury (mmHg) as systolic over diastolic. Ideal blood pressure should be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg.
Now for this system to work effectively, your blood vessels become narrower or wider to maintain healthy blood pressure. Too high a blood pressure for a sustained period causes strain on these arteries, which in turn can lead to strokes and heart attacks. There are various contributing factors, including age, alcohol intake, weight, stress and exercise. Although not all related to blood pressure, cardiovascular disease is by far the highest cause of death in the world.
Knowing all of this, I may be extra precautious in taking good care of the wonderful machine that is my heart.
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Thanks for reading. Until next week.