<p>I believe this is game theory (although I could be wrong). Anyway, I did look into a bit into but I didn’t seem to comprehend it very well. Anyone out there to explain? :)</p>
<p>It means that for someone to “win,” someone else has to “lose.” With admissions, if one person takes an available slot, it isn’t available to someone else.</p>
<p>A “positive sum game” is when everyone can end up ahead. Good negotiators try for this, for instance.</p>
<p>more generally in a game measure some quantity such as money, happiness, industrial output, etc. In a zero-sum game the quantity sums to zero (when you treat gains as positive and losses as negative) no matter what choices are made in playing the game. By contrast, a positive-sum game means some choices have positive outcomes.</p>
<p>In economics, a common example of a positive-sum game is specialization. If in one day Bob could produce either 10 widgets or 5 gadgets, and Jane could produce 5 widgets and 10 gadgets, the best solution is to have Bob spend all day making widgets and Jane making gadgets. The outcome is 10 of each, more than in the other scenarios.</p>
<p>The concept of a zero-sum game is also quite present in political philosophy. Realists will tell you that international relations are a zero-sum game, meaning that we have to build up a military and be suspicious to protect our fair portion. Liberals (in the classic sense, not the political-party kind) will tell you that international relations are positive-sum, and that negotiation can lead to an optimal outcome.</p>
<p>wow you guys sound like my poli sci and econ professors! LOL. </p>
<p>read DianeR’s post for a simplified reply.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m pretty simple today (bad cold – good for nothing but wasting time on the computer). Hence, far too lazy to look up the precise definition …</p>
<p>I’ve thought about this before about CC. I’m one of the adults and you really can’t try to justify being on CC as helping people get into the elite college because for everyone that you help, you are hurting someone else. (at least, I hope I’m helping people on CC, but the argument works in the vice versa sense also) So really, instead of trying to help people get into a particular college, it is best to think of it as trying to help them survive the process.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with that? The people who bother to come to CC “wins”. The others “lose”</p>
<p>Not necessarily… look at the Decisions threads for colleges and despite many acceptances, Deferrance and Rejection abound!</p>
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<p>I agree with this to some extent, but why would I, as a person with a life (?), chose to help people who come to CC and not help people who don’t come to CC.</p>
<p>It is a little different for GC’s and teachers. They are being paid to help a certain subgroup of people.</p>