Decision theory Memes

Someone clearly misunderstood game theory! This meme shows John Nash (from A Beautiful Mind ) alongside a hilariously misapplied "payoff matrix" that tries to justify cheating. The irony? Real Nash Equilibrium is about finding stable strategies where no player benefits from changing only their own strategy - not rationalizing infidelity! In this matrix, the only person who always "wins" is the cheating husband (getting either "harem" or "open relationship"). Methinks someone failed both Game Theory 101 AND Marriage 101! 🧮💔

The math nerds are cackling right now. Anyone who paid attention in stats class knows the green button is worth $25 million in expected value (50% × $50M), while the red gives you a guaranteed $1M. Yet most humans grab that red button faster than a tenure committee rejecting new ideas. It's the perfect illustration of why casinos exist—our monkey brains would rather have one banana now than a 50% chance at 50 bananas later. The same reason your research grant proposal got rejected in favor of something "practical."

The classic Monty Hall paradox strikes again! The son is wrestling with one of probability theory's most counterintuitive problems. When given three doors with a prize behind one, and after choosing door #1, being shown that door #3 has nothing, switching to door #2 actually gives you a 2/3 chance of winning instead of 1/3! What makes this extra hilarious is how the dad casually checks in on his son's game progress only to find him having an existential crisis over conditional probability. The mathematical truth defies our intuition so hard that even professional mathematicians got this wrong when it first appeared in a magazine column in 1990.