getting this stupid fucking blog out of the way early so I don’t have to try and muster some meaningful thoughts at 10:00pm at night when I’m dogass tired.

today we’re talking game theory.

I was playing basketball the other day, and I went for a shot fake. the defender, a friend of mine who I regularly play with, said “I’m not falling for the shot fake because I know that’s not your shooting stance. that’s not your shot footwork.”

and so I started thinking, “hmm, what is the selling point for certain strategic features? on mechanical level, what is required to sell the pump fake?”

to really examine this, we have to go back to Nash Equilibrium (we don’t really but I want to make this point too). for those who aren’t familiar “in game theory, the Nash equilibrium is the most commonly used solution concept for non-cooperative games. A Nash equilibrium is a situation where no player could gain by changing their own strategy (holding all other players' strategies fixed).”

in simpler terms, and in my understanding, Nash is the most stable, or the best payoff possible, for all parties involved in that situation. it’s the equilibrium of decisions.

now, knowing Nash is important for knowing payoffs. duh. but it’s also important for knowing when to strategically deviate so that you can secure an outsized benefit. this is the secondary application of Nash that nobody really talks about. knowing the “best” payoff if good, yes, but knowing when to strategically deviate to receive an outsized benefit is even better.

this can very quickly become a game of “I know that you know that I know that you know that I know that you know…” but I digress. just something to watch out for.

so, to tie this back to basketball. knowing what other people are going to do in a competitive setting is good, but you also have to know what you look like doing your things from their perspective. to me, I thought I was doing a decent job of selling the fake shot. as we now know, I wasn’t, because I didn’t account for what my shooting posture looked like from the perspective of the defender.

knowing what the opposition knows includes knowing what you look like from their POV. this is critical for a variety of strategic reasons, most of which have to do with observing the playing field and making rotations.