In my last blog I talked about the current world order and how the jungle is growing back. Like many others, I am following the current events with amazement and worry. As a child of the 80’s, 90’s and the end of history, it feels like we are being robbed of the promises of a better world. But then again, a better world is a matter of perspective and, as we have recently learnt, some people are happy to declare their perspective the only right one and realize their vision of the world, regardless of the cost to others.
All of this has made me curious. Why do people behave like this? Why do we seem to repeat the mistakes made in the past? And most importantly, why is it so difficult to break the cycle?
Much research exists on human evolution, society, and behaviour, and I do not claim to contribute anything significant or scientific to these fields – I am only trying to make sense of the world through my own framework and my life experiences. I have had the privilege of living and working in different cultures with people of vastly different kinds of pasts. This has given me plenty of opportunities to observe how people interact with each other and what drives them.
One of the most significant observation I remember making was that of how many people consider life a zero-sum game, essentially saying that someone’s success is, by definition, always someone else’s loss. This is a very cynical view of life, and it sadly has been gaining traction recently in a form of transactionalism in international politics.
Through the concept of zero-sum game, I was first introduced to the world of Game Theory and was immediately hooked. Game Theory as a concept is a whole another rabbit hole and goes well beyond the scope of this blog, but in the context of human interaction, Robert Axelrod’s book “The Evolution of Cooperation” from 1984 is fascinating. In his book Axelrod examines cooperation from game theory in the context of evolutionary biology and organizes a set of tournaments for different game theory strategies.
Veritasium made an excellent video about it and it explains in very simple terms Axelrod’s approach and how monumentally important his findings are. You should check it out.
Essentially, after the tournaments Axelrod found out that “success in an evolutionary game correlated with the following characteristics:
- Be nice: cooperate, never be the first to defect.
- Be provocable: return defection for defection, cooperation for cooperation.
- Do not be envious: focus on maximizing your own ‘score’, as opposed to ensuring your score is higher than your ‘partner’s’.
- Do not be too clever: or do not try to be tricky. Clarity and predictability are essential for others to cooperate with you.”
If you stop to think about these results more broadly, they apply to almost any field where human interaction is involved, whether it is business, politics, relationships, or international diplomacy.
So, why do we still have all these wars and problems, when we have all the right answers? Well, the assumption in game theory is that all the players are rational and make rational decisions. Sadly, the reality is quite different. No matter how much we strive to be kind, consistent, free from envy, and clear in our communication, life sometimes gets the better of us.
What can we learn from all of this?
Be nice, be forgiving, but do not be a pushover and like one commenter said in the Veritasium video: “The goal is to accumulate points, not to defeat the opponent.” With points the commenter referred to things that are the joy (family, hobbies, passions, travel) we can extract from life. Simply put, the quality of life.
Life is not a zero-sum game. The cycle can be broken.
