The Peanut Experiment
There are three participants sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a bowl with 60 peanuts in it. A researcher walks into the room and says:
“Every 10 seconds I will double the amount of peanuts in the bowl. Your goal is to get as many peanuts as you can. When the buzzer sounds, the experiment begins.”
A buzzer sounds...
What do you think is the typically outcome of the experiment?
Well...
Typically the experiment ends in less than 3 seconds. Each participant competes with the others and eagerly reaches into the bowl to grab as many peanuts as possible until there are no peanuts remaining. After 10 seconds the researcher does not add any peanuts to the bowl because (0 + 0 = 0).
Overall, each participant ends up with a different number of peanuts with some participants fare better than others.
An alternative solution.
Had the participants cooperated with each other and each took 10 peanuts each for a total of 30 peanuts, then every 10 seconds the researcher would have replenished the amount of peanuts in the bowl back to 60 (i.e. 30 + 30 = 60). In theory, the participants could have continued this process forever and they would each receive an infinite number of peanuts.
So in the first and typical scenario there is competition between the participants and we see that some individuals do better than others relatively speaking. For instance, one participant may end up with 18 peanuts whereas their counterparts may end up with 7 and 5 peanuts. Or something along those lines.
In the second scenario, there is cooperation between the participants and by working together, each of the participants receives the same number of peanuts as their counterparts. In this scenario there is no winner or loser but each of the participants receives more peanuts overall then they ever would have, had they competed.
Any thoughts on this? Feel free to comment or discuss.
Image from http://homegymr.com/are-peanuts-a-healthy-snack-to-eat/
The answer is to wait patiently until the researcher runs out of peanuts!
That isn't going to happen, is it?
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Thanks for the comment. I was updating the post to include the answer as you were commenting on the post. That's not what happens typically but you are definitely on to something with your guess. If you get a chance to re-read the article with the answer feel free to let me know your thoughts on it :)
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Though I think that its great that you are creating an organization of support I do not agree with re-steeming articles that I do not necessarily agree with or that interest me, simply because we are apart of the same clic. If I gain a following on Steemit, I would hope that I do so organically because people value what I have to say. I think that you should keep doing what you are doing, but at this point I'm going to pass.