A mathematical thought for the weekend: What can Game Theory teach us about cooperation? What governs everything from choosing language partners, friends, life partners, including international geopolitics?! Prisoner's Dilemma! In 1980, a simple computer game was devised with a certain scoring system. Different codes with different strategies will interact 100s of times and try to score points on each other. If they cooperate, they get 3 points that round. If they both defect, they both get zero. However, if one defects, and the other cooperates, the defector gets 5 points! It's a very nuanced mathematical problem that emulates life, where the codes will lose if they are " too nice" by always cooperating, or "too mean" by always defecting. The strategy that won and kept winning, and that has been used successfully in real life, was a simple code called "Tit for tat." It: 1) Always started nice with a cooperation 2) Retaliated immediately. If the partner defected, it also defected immediately in the next round 3) But it forgave! If cooperation restarted, it restarted cooperating. 4) It was clear and simple, without being a pushover That's it. Those are the four lines to have fruitful and successful cooperations without losing too much and maximizing your wins in a non-zero game. Happy Learning , and have a great weekend.