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golden balls. the weirdest split or steal ever!

spinout3 · other · Watch on YouTube

Probability & game theoryGames (other)

What it is

A Golden Balls episode in which one contestant announces he will steal, leading to an unexpected outcome in the split-or-steal prisoner's dilemma.

Why Hacker News recommends it

The canonical real-world example in game theory discussions of manipulating a prisoner's dilemma.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 3 strong recommendations
  • first 2012, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “This is the most clever I've seen”

    A clever strategy removing the opponent's incentive to defect.

    surreal, 2014-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Rock Paper Scissors Programming Competition”

  2. “This is a classic IMO.”

    Player manipulates the game to defeat the Nash equilibrium.

    hcarvalhoalves, 2016-09 · Strong recommendation · in “What is the Nash Equilibrium and why does it matter?”

  3. “No conversation on game theory is complete until someone brings up Golden Balls”

    The amazing Golden Balls moment.

    gcanyon, 2025-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Game theory illustrated by an animated cartoon game”

  4. “is a very entertaining example of a two-player zero-sum game”

    Entertaining two-player game show example.

    J-dawg, 2016-01 · Recommendation · in “The pirate game”

  5. “There is great demonstration of this in action on a British game show”

    A great demonstration of a prisoners dilemma in action.

    satori99, 2019-11 · Recommendation · in “Paradoxical Geniuses: “Let us burn the ships” (2017)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: game theory, golden balls, split or steal, nash equilibrium, game show

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