Transcription
Okay, so welcome back to game theory. And, um, as I discussed last class, our goal is to use game theory to analyze global events, to understand why they're happening, as well as make certain predictions about how they should develop. But to do that, I first need to train your mind on how to see the world using game theory.
So last class, in our first class, we discussed an example of the dating game, of why men and women are motivated to behave the way they do when they look for a mate. Today, I want to discuss the issue of school. Okay, school.
So, uh, for the first few classes, I'm going to use examples from your life that you know pretty well in order to develop the mindset for game theory. So, uh, school is something that you should know very, very well. As you know, the purpose of school is to train you in a way that allows you to be functional in society, as well as to be creative. Right? Okay.
So the goals are basically literacy, all right, which means reading and writing. This is the primary purpose of school because in order to function in our society, you need to be able to absorb information and convey information. Okay. Number two is basically, uh, what we call the core competencies. Okay, these are skills that you need to be successful in life, including the ability to think critically, to cooperate with others, to collaborate, to communicate. Okay, you, you, you all know this.
The last thing is what we call lifelong learning. So, in an age of AI, in an age of globalization, school is just a start of the learning process because every five years, the world changes. So you need to be in a constant process, a constant state of learning. Okay? So you have to, like, actually love learning, and you have to, like, know how to learn for yourself. So these, these are the three basic purposes of school, and that's why you're at the school.
Unfortunately, what we know is that most schools, I'm not saying all schools, I'm saying that most schools are pretty bad at these three things. In fact, you can make the argument that most schools not only do not teach you these skills, but they have the opposite effect. In fact, they make you hate learning.
Okay, so let's look at literacy. Today, in most schools, you're not required to read books. In fact, when you go to university, the professors there are so shocked that you don't read books that instead they make you read paragraphs or watch videos. Okay. So in terms of literacy, around the world, people are losing the capacity to read and to write. And not only that, but people's attention spans have decreased. It's very hard for a professor to give you an hour lecture. People lose focus after about five minutes. Okay? So this is one problem.
Another problem is school is supposed to teach you creativity, critical thinking skills, collaboration, but it doesn't do that. Look at collaboration. In school, it's a competition where you believe that it's a zero-sum game. So, for you to get ahead, you need to screw over your classmate. So, class ranking is very important. So that's kind of odd. Okay.
And the last thing, of course, is lifelong learning, where school teaches you to hate school and therefore teaches you how to hate learning, especially in China. Okay? Especially in China, where you work hard until the national entrance examination at age 18. And then after the exam, examination ends, what do you do? You burn your books. That's the great ceremony here in China. Right after the examination, you take your books, you rip out the pages, and you throw it in the sky to signal your liberation, your liberation. And you're like, "I never ever want to read a book again. I never ever want to take a test again. I never want to learn again." Okay.
So around the world, most schools, not all schools, there are some really good schools out there, but most schools are failing in their mission. School sucks. And so the question for us today is, why is this the case? And so we're going to use game theory to analyze why this is the case. All right.
So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to tell you a story about myself. So the year is 2008. I went to Yale College, okay, in the United States, and I was an English major. I did very well in school. So I was hired in 2008 to go to Shenzhen in South China and help the school, Shenzhen Middle School, build a national program to send kids abroad. Okay. Right.
So this was 2008, which was a long time ago, and back then, not that many students wanted to go abroad. There were really few international schools. So the first thing I did was I looked at the situation at the school. Okay. And this, and this, this is what I found. Okay.
I found that students, even though they were going abroad, maybe about 10% of the students were planning to go abroad. So, so that's about 80 students each year. That's a lot. But the way they were going about the process of studying abroad was problematic. Okay. So first of all, all they were doing was taking regular Chinese classes. And, you know, in Chinese classes, all you do is you sit in a room of 50 kids and you take notes and you take tests. You don't communicate, you don't ask questions, you don't debate. Okay, so that's one problem.
Another problem is that the students were spending all their time memorizing SAT word lists. Okay, they were not reading, they were not writing, they were just memorizing words. And the other thing that they did to make their applications look good is Model United Nations. Okay, and that's fine. Maybe some of you are doing Model United Nations, and that's a great activity, but everyone was doing it. There was absolutely no differentiation. All right.
So I looked at the situation. I said, "No, I mean, you might be able to get into a good American university because, you know, these kids are very smart." But I wanted them to do well at the university and to do well in life. Okay. So I made certain changes to the curriculum and to the school. Okay.
So, first thing I did was I set up a seminar system. So rather than in Chinese classes, I invited these American teachers to come and teach seminars, like we have at the school, where 10, 20 kids are in a room and they discuss books that they read together. Okay. Um, rather than SAT word memorization, I had them read books. Students were required to read a lot of books. In fact, I established a 5,000 book English library at the school where students can just go and borrow books and read. I wanted to teach students the joy of reading. Um, and then in terms of activities, I didn't want students to do Model United Nations anymore because I didn't want kids sitting around just talking. I wanted to let them do things. Okay.
So, I set up two new activities. The first is called the Coffee House. And the Coffee House is the first coffee house in China in a Chinese high school. There are lots of coffee houses today, but I was the first person to set up a coffee house where students had to run a business. They had to work as waiters and provide good service to customers. And it was a collaboration effort. As you can imagine, this is great for the students to learn collaboration, to learn finance, to learn entrepreneurship. Okay. So that was a very successful activity.
"Uh, do you have a question?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"I mean, was that like similar with our Moon Coffee, like the coffee in the West South store?"
"Okay. Um, 2008, I was the first person to do anything. Okay."
"Oh, okay."
"Okay. Just I mean, like, like..."
"Similar."
"Yeah. All right. So the Coffee House was an activity I set up which was very successful. It's still there today, guys. If you go to Middle School, you will see the Coffee House still there, a long, long time after I went away. The other thing I did was something called the Daily Newspaper. And this was the first daily newspaper in China in a high school, and probably maybe even around the world, where students every day had to report, collect information, write articles, edit, and publish it. And they worked until like midnight, sometimes until 2 AM, and then at 7 AM, they had to get up and, um, deliver the newspaper to all the students. And these were two very successful activities. And, um, so I understand game theory says, okay, if you want to make this transition from the old system to the new system, you also have to establish a new culture to allow these activities to flourish. Okay. And so my three major principles for, um, transparency, um, innovation, okay, transparency, um, innovation, openness. And so my idea was this: rather than a curriculum that was perfect, it would be a curriculum that would evolve over time. We would learn mistakes together. We would admit these mistakes and then we would correct them together, and that's what learning is. Okay? Okay.
So the idea of transparency also, I made changes all the time, which created some chaos, but it's a time for us to reflect and to be resilient. And I was very open and honest about everything that I was doing. And this, and so this system, in a very short amount of time, even though there were a lot of problems in the beginning, it became a very effective system after a semester or a year. And not only that, the students who went for this program did very well in life. They went to Yale. They went to, they went to Wharton, Cornell. And this program, actually, the school became the most famous program in South China, and our students have the best record of college admissions in South China. Okay.
So this sounds great, right? Okay. The problem is this. The problem is what happened after I established the program. The first thing that happened was, okay, I was fired. They said, "Get out of here." Okay. Second of all, the teachers, the parents, the students were all happy to see me go. They were like, "Get out of here. We never want to see you again." The third thing that happened was I did come to a new program that was very similar to this. Okay. But after that, after four years of doing this and being very successful at this, I was never allowed to set up another program again. No one wanted me to work in management again. Okay? So even though I was successful, even though I worked really hard, even though I was innovative, even though I set up really the best study abroad program in all of China, I was the first. Everyone else copied me afterwards. I was fired. No one wanted me to stay, and I was not allowed to do this ever again. Why? Okay.
Well, the reason is this. When I was doing this, the word that everyone used to describe me was not reformer, not visionary, not idealist, not dreamer, but dictator. Okay. One other word that they used that was more common was, "This guy's an asshole." Why? Because I insisted on fairness. Okay? I don't care who you are. I don't care who your parents are. I want you to work hard and learn. And as you can imagine, that pissed off a lot of powerful people because that's not how the game is played in China. Okay? It's actually not how this game is played anywhere in the world. The game is not fair. The game is established by stakeholders, and they play the game according to their interests. Okay.
So, um, let's go over what happened. All right. Okay. So, Mike, I understand that there are stakeholders, and the stakeholders in game theory are just the players. Okay, the players. And who are the players? Well, you have the students, you have the parents, you have the, um, teachers, you have the administrators, okay, the school leaders, you have the government, okay, and then you have the colleges. Okay? The colleges are the US colleges where I'm trying to send my students. Okay? So these are the players in the game. And if you want to understand game theory, you need to understand the motivations and interests of all the different players. That tells you why or how they will behave the way they do. Okay.
So look, so here is my original understanding of the players, which was clearly wrong. Okay. Because I got fired. All right. So the students, the students wanted like, love to learn, get into Ivy League, and be the best. Okay. So I thought the students, what their motivation was, to be the best possible person, to work hard, to love learning, to be famous, to get into Ivy League. Okay. Clearly, this is wrong. Okay. I'm saying back then, what my thinking was: The parents, well, the parents wanted successful kids who were independent, okay, independent, and they wanted face, right? So they want their kids to get into the Ivy League, right? Teachers, well, teachers wanted to do a good job, right? They want to teach students. They love teaching. They love students. They just want to be given the space and the opportunity to teach what their passion is. Okay. Administrators, administrators, I really didn't like administrators. So I just thought they were just, they wanted good results. Okay. That's all. Good results. As long as I provide good results, they're happy. Okay. The government, they wanted innovation, they wanted good workers. Um, they wanted, you know, they want technology, okay? They want a strong China. Colleges wanted the best possible potential. Okay? They wanted students who will be the leaders of the future. Okay? So, 2008, when I set up the program, this was my assumptions about who the players were and what motivated them. Okay. Clearly, clearly I was wrong about who they were. Okay.
So let's go over again. Let's now do an analysis of what they really, really want. Okay. And the, um, easy answer is that in game theory, all the players, what they're motivated by is achieving the best possible results by doing the least amount of work possible. Okay? Just remember that. That's a principle here. Everyone wants to achieve the best results by doing the least amount of work possible. People are lazy, and people are greedy. It's that simple, guys. Okay.
So students, they want to get into the Ivy League, but they didn't want to work hard to get into the Ivy League. They wanted to do as little work as possible. And if it meant they had to work hard to get into the Ivy League, they were like, "I don't want to get into the Ivy League then. I'll just get into another school because who cares?" Okay? The best possible result, least possible work.
Parents are like, "Yeah, I can have my kid work hard, but what's important is for me to control my kid, right? For to make to because only I know how to ensure my kid succeeds. So I need to, I don't want my kids to think critically or be independent. I want my kids to obey me."
Now, teachers are like, "Listen, this is a job, man." Okay? I have kids. I don't want to work hard. I just want to come to school, do what I'm supposed to do, do what is minimally required of me to collect my salary and then go home. I don't want to teach my passion because I don't have any passion. Okay.
Administrators are like, "Oh my god, what's important is for me to make sure the powerful parents are happy. I don't care about everyone else. I don't care about poor parents. I don't care about middle-class parents. As long as the parents who are powerful are happy, I keep my job, right?"
The government is like, "You know what? I don't want innovation in this country. Even though I say I want it, I want it because I don't want problems in life, okay? I just want things to just stay the way they are and everyone's happy. Okay?"
So now we understand what happened. All right. All right. So now what I will show you is this. I will show you how a game is constructed. A game is constructed when all the different players agree on the rules and incentives of the game. All right. I was an outsider. I was not a player. I came in to construct a game in which I felt that students would thrive, and they did thrive. But that's not what they want. Okay? They wanted to have control over the game. And if they lose control, well, they call you an outsider, an asshole. Okay? All right.
So, let's do this again. And objectively think about what the interests and motivations of each player are. And when their interests converge, that's the game they play. All right? So you have students, parents, uh, teachers, uh, leaders, school administrators, and then the colleges. Okay. Another thing that you have to do in game theory that's very important is you have to rank the power of, uh, power of each player. Uh, you have a question.
"Government."
"Excuse me?"
"The government."
"Yes. Sorry. Uh, you're right. I, I forgot about the government. Okay. And the government. Yeah. Another thing that that you have to do in game theory is you have to rank the importance of the players. Okay. So, not all players are equal. So, in this game theory, even though there are students, and students are the majority, students actually don't matter. Okay? What students actually think and want don't actually matter. What matters, of course, are the parents because the parents pay to play in this game, and parents can cause a lot of problems if they don't get what they want. Okay? So the most important are the parents. Then you have the teachers. Why? Because the teachers are the ones who are implementing the rules of the game. Okay? The way that teachers behave determines how this game is played. And then these two are the most important. Okay? Then maybe you have administrators as well, but they're not as important as the parents and the teachers. The government doesn't really matter because they don't really care, right? It's one school among thousands. Who cares what the school does as long as it doesn't cause me any problems? The colleges don't care either. You, they say they want really passionate students who are curious, who are a match from China. They don't care. Okay? For them, it's a business. They just want students who are willing to pay money to get a crappy education in America. All right? So the costs don't really matter. They'll take anyone who's willing to pay. And the Ivy League, yeah, everyone's getting Ivy League, but who do the Ivy League want? They want people who want to be successful in life, right? And who are these people? Not the best students. These are people from powerful families. Okay? So this game is rigged, right? They have all this talk about, you know, we want the best motivated students. We want students who are curious, who are passionate. It's all nonsense. Yeah, that's not how the game is played. So the colleges don't really matter either. Um, okay. So these are the three major players. The parents, the teachers, administrators, students, government, colleges, they are in this game, they don't really matter. Okay.
So now we're going to do is we'll analyze the mentality, the worldview, the interests of each player. Okay. And again, once you do that, once we figure out where they converge, then we know how the game is constructed. All right. So let's look at students. Students, okay, I mean, they want to be popular, right? So most students come to school and actually their priority is not to learn. The priority is to make friends and to be popular among their friends. Okay? That's just human nature. That's true, right? Um, then you have, please teachers and parents. Okay, this guy, this is really important to understand. You're not in school to learn. You're in school to please parents and teachers. Why? Because parents are the ones who pay for your way in life, right? The ones who give you food. Teachers are the ones who give you grades. You're not here to learn. You're here to please them. There's a difference. Okay? And grades are a way of showing how well you're pleasing the parents and the teachers. Okay. Is that true? All right. Um, and then you're like, have fun. Okay. And then get a good college. Okay. All right. So, am I missing anything among my students? All right. So, but, okay. I'm sure there's more, but let's just keep on going. Okay.
Now, parents, well, the parents, what they want is, of course, successful kids. But they want successful kids not because they believe that success will make their kid happy. What they really want, of course, is face, right? They want their kid to go to the Ivy League. And they don't think the kid the Ivy League provides a good education or their kid will be happy at the Ivy League. They just want to brag to their relatives and their friends and their colleagues, "My kid is at Brown or Cornell or Dartmouth." Okay?
But face also means to treat education as a luxury product. Why do parents send kids to national schools? Not because national schools provide a better education. It's because international schools are more expensive, and most importantly, international schools have white faces, right? White faces. Okay? This is the main marketing tool of international schools, right? They have all these white faces, white teachers, like, "Oh my god, this is a real national school now." You don't care if the teacher is actually good at what they're doing. You don't care if the kids are actually learning. You don't care what the curriculum is. You don't understand that sort of stuff. You just understand, okay, 10 white faces, therefore this is a good school. It's that simple. Okay? And then of course, you want some good outcome. Okay? You want, you want a good outcome. You don't care if your kid is actually learning in school. What you want is your kid to get good grades, to get into a good college. Okay? These are not the same thing, right? So that's the parents.
Then the teachers. Teachers are really simple because teachers do this job, and for them, the priority is to do as little work as possible to get by. Okay? I'm not saying all teachers. I'm saying the majority of teachers in the school are just trying to get by because, quite honestly, they have families, they have other responsibilities. So you don't have time to focus entirely in school, okay? So basically, just get by, okay? Or the minimum amount of work, okay? You may not believe this, but like when you actually grow up and get a job, you'll do the same thing. Okay? Just get the, do a minimum amount of work in order to get by.
Um, administrators, they want good outcomes, but what their real priority is to protect relationships with parents. Okay? Just give parents what they want. Okay? Their job is to sell the school. So, so whatever parents want, you just give it to them. And administrators also, by the way, have families. This is a job for them. They also just want to get by, okay? They're not trying to build the best school possible. They're not trying to change the world. They're not trying to educate students. They're just trying to get by, do the least amount of work in order to, uh, get by.
Government is okay. They say they want innovation, creativity, technology, but really it's just like, no problems, guys. Okay? As long as you don't cause any problems for us, we're happy with you. Just stay away from us. We're happy to not bother you. Please don't come bother us. Yeah, that's government. Also, what they want is for students who will also be no problems in the future, right? Right. So, compliance. So, as long as schools are teaching you how to obey authority, how to comply, how to do what you're told, they're happy. You're a good school. Okay?
Colleges again, just want the money. Okay? That's all they care about. If you're willing to go to an American college and pay, how much, how much is it nowadays? Like $50,000, $100,000 a year? That's a lot of money, guys. Okay. If you're willing to pay that, they'll take you. I guarantee you. Even if you don't speak English, they'll take you. All right. Uh, yeah. So, you mentioned that earlier, like the, the, the purpose of education are those three things, but now schools don't do that. So what caused the transformation?
"Yeah, that's a really good question. When and also..."
"Yeah, okay. So what we discussed last class is the idea of superstructure, right? Superstructure is just the macro picture of a society. It's demographics, how many people are there, it's economy, it's politics, it's religion. Okay? And we discussed how societies are born, they mature, and then they die. Okay? So there's actually another way of understanding this. You can actually use three metrics to understand how societies develop. Okay? And these three metrics are cohesion, openness, and energy. Okay.
So what is energy? Energy just means you want to work hard. Okay? You are, you believe, you're motivated, you're driven, you work hard all the time. And working hard just doesn't mean like you work 12 hours. It just means like you're focused, you're attentive, right? So, for example, if you're working at a restaurant as a cook, you want to make a really good meal. Okay? You're energetic about it. Okay? Does that make sense? That's energy. Okay? So, um, openness just means that you want to learn, you want to grow, you're willing to admit you made a mistake and improve on yourself. Okay. And the last thing is cohesion, where you see yourself as part of a society, part of a community of people, and you want your community to grow as well. And when you have all three things together, the schools are great. Okay?
And so, for example, go to Finland. It's a small country, maybe about 5 million people, but the schools are amazing. Why? Because Finland is an energetic, open, and cohesive society. And when you have that, what you want to do is invest in the future. And what that means is you want to make sure that every child, not just your child, but every child has a good future, has a good education. And so what you do is you have your best and brightest become teachers, right? You pay them very well. You give them high status, and you give them a lot of autonomy. And if you do that, the schools are great. And guess what, guys? In China, in maybe the 1980s, the schools were amazing here. Okay? What we're seeing today is today. But if you go back to the 1980s, the schools were really good. If you went to a school in China, I'm not talking about like the best, I'm just talking about like an average school, teachers felt respected. They believed that it was their responsibility to train the young. They took pride and joy in their work, and the students enjoyed learning. And guess what? Back in the 1980s, kids did less work. There were less tests, there was less pressure, and they learned a lot more. Okay?
So when a society begins, you have these three aspects. But over time, what happens is all three decline. Why? Because there's more corruption, there's more inequality, there's more wealth. Okay? So, what happens is wealth generation and inequality, corruption, and so people feel under stress. Okay? So rather than cohesion, you have individualization, individual. Okay? Does that make sense? Where everyone's like, you know what? I don't care if other kids are doing well. What's important is that my kid does well because it's a zero-sum game. If all the other kids in the school do really well, but my kid flunks out, I'm dead. I'm screwed. So I'd rather my kid do okay and every other kid gets screwed over. Okay. So now it's a competition in schools. All right.
Openness. Are you willing to learn from your mistakes? And the answer is no. Because if I'm an administrator and I say to parents, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake today." The parents will be like, "You're fired. Get out of here. You're incompetent." Okay? So you could be like the best person in the world, but if you make a mistake, the parents will come and kill you. But if you, but you could be the worst person in the world, but you just hide in your office. The parents can't find you. You're okay. Okay. So school administrators are now afraid to admit they're wrong, which means that a school can never improve. Right?
Then you have energy, which is like, you know what? If I do a good job, parents will want me to do a better job. I can't please all the parents. So I'll just hide in my office, do as little work as possible, and then if parents complain, I'll just shut off my brain. Okay. And this is happening because of wealth generation. 1980s China was really poor, and the only way to get to lead a better life is through education. That's why students worked hard. If students worked hard, teachers were motivated to teach well. And now you're having a time when, you know, today in 2025, 26, when parents have money. So it doesn't matter if you don't do well in school because your parents can just give you an apartment, can buy you a car. Who cares if you do well in school? So you're not motivated. If you're not motivated, indifferent, then as a teacher, why am I going to want to teach? Well, okay. So it's a superstructure of society. Okay. Does that make sense? All right. Any more questions? Okay. Okay.
So, so thank you. Okay. So again, um, superstructure determines the motivations of the players, and where the interests of the players converge is the game that you have. Okay. All right. So you go back to this list, and what we're seeing is parents just want white faces. Okay. Sorry, white faces, and they want, um, successful kids, which means good grades. Okay. Um, parents, teachers just want to get by and do as little work as possible. The ministry just wants to protect relationships with parents. Okay. And so when you do this convergence, this is what schools look like now. Okay. Schools in China, international schools in China, by the way. And again, this is like the majority. I'm not saying it's every school, but I'm saying it's the majority. Okay.
What you have are white faces, easy grades, right? It's really easy to get a good grade. All right. Um, some top students, these students are given scholarships, and then they're sent to top universities. Okay. Then you have lots of cheating. Okay. And high turnover, where students leave, teachers leave, but new ones come in. So who cares? Okay. And this is what it looks like. This is what happens when you take the interests of these different players, you converge them together. And this is what schools look like today. There are lots of white faces, lots of really nice buildings, lots of fancy activities, great marketing, beautiful website, really motivated admissions officers. Then you have easy grades, where everyone gets an A, no matter what you do. Um, you have some top students who will get into good schools so that the school can brag about them. You have lots of cheating going on. Okay. If you don't get a good grade, just complain, and you'll get a good grade. Okay. So that happened to me at the school where I tried my first year to give, um, fair grades. Okay. And a fair grade is not like, I give you a 20. I give you like an 80, and students complain about me. So now, so I'm stuck giving them like a pass/fail, right? So it's not hard for students to get to pass. If you don't like a teacher, just complain, and then the teacher has to change. And so you now have high turnover, where teachers feel stressed out, and where parents are never happy, and where students don't care. Okay? Doesn't make sense. This is why schools suck. And I'm saying they suck not just in China, not just in our schools, but in most places around the world. And it has to do with the superstructure of society. Okay.
But what, but I mean, like the point of today's class is not like schools suck, don't go to school. The point of today's class is we're trying to analyze why schools are the way they are. And one way to analyze it is by figuring out what at what point, okay, do the different players converge, right? So think of you have different sets, right? Okay. Parents, teachers, students, government, colleges. Okay. And their convergence point is the game they play. Okay.
Now, what's important for us to understand is that there is actually a lot of room to this convergence point. So it's possible to do reform, but only within a subset of this convergence point. Okay. So my problem is back in 2008, I was like, you know what? I'm going to set up a new universe, my own world. I'll make up the rules. I'll be God, and you just have to play the game. I tell you to play the game. Okay. That's why everyone is like, you're an asshole. Whatever you do, whatever game you set up, has to be within this convergence point in order for players to accept it. Okay? And this is true for everything. If you want to implement political reform anywhere, you have to figure out where the different stakeholders converge and figure out how to move the stakeholders from one part of the convergence point to another part of the convergence point. Okay. This slow, incremental reform. Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. Any questions before I conclude, guys? Ask questions. What, what was this clear?
"Yeah, you have a question. So in the future, will we learn more about how do we find out what causes different stakeholders to have different interests? Like in the future, it's like not really really..."
"Okay. Yeah, that's a really good question. So, so thank you for asking. Okay. All right. So the question is, where do the interests of these different players come from? Okay. And I mean, the easy answer is the superstructure of society. Okay? People are responding to their culture. But in game theory, what I want to teach you is that it's because they themselves are playing different games. Okay?
So let's look at parents. Okay, parents have different identities. They are, um, family, they are colleagues. Okay? And depending on on their identity, they're playing a different game. All right. So what does family mean? Family means that you, um, might have brothers, right? Brothers. What do brothers do? They compete against each other, right? You have three brothers. You want to prove that you're better than your brother. How? Well, by having more money, by having better kids, by having a more beautiful wife. Okay? That's a game they're playing, right? Um, but then you have colleagues. You have colleagues, and the game you're trying to play there is get along with your colleagues because that's what ensures your success in life. Okay? So you need to make sure that your child, no matter how he or she is educated, is able to become friends with the sons and daughters of your colleagues. Okay? So because this is what ensures success. All right? And so there are other games as well. But, but you understand this, right? You understand how parents' calculation isn't just like, "My kid, I want my kid to be successful." No, no. You're thinking about how to play different games and be successful in other games, right? Because if your kid becomes very successful, but not in a way that pleases the colleagues, you become, you can be thrown out of the game. Okay?
The thing that people fear the most is the idea of ostracization. Okay? Or basically just exile, where you are no longer part of the group. They kick you out as a player. Okay? That's what people are afraid of. And that's why people are motivated by what they do, because they're trying to, they're trying as hard as possible to play the game and get along with other players while at the same time competing against them. So, so it's a weird psychology. Okay? You're trying to beat them. At the same time, you don't want to piss them off and get thrown out of the game. Okay? And this is what prevents the idea of cheating. But from the perspective of the game, if you're doing anything different, that's still cheating. Okay? Because, so another way of saying this is a lot of the rebellion against what I was doing as a reformer is I was subverting traditional Chinese values. Okay? I was arguing against the norms, the values, the conventions of this country. And it's, and so if people believed in me, then they risked themselves being ostracized by the larger community. Okay? Does that make sense? All right. So that's parents.
Then you have, um, um, right. Okay. But students, right? So students, they're trying to play a game where they do well in school because that ensures a good outcome. But at the same time, students play other games as well. So, for example, a friendship game, right? Where you're trying to have as many friends as possible. You're trying to be popular in school. That's another game you play. You're also trying to please your parents, right? Because by pleasing your parents, that ensures that you have an easy, comfortable life. In fact, you could argue that of these three games, pleasing your parents is the most important. Then comes having good friends, because that will also ensure your success in life. And the, and the game that you care the least about, that matters the least, is actually doing well in school, learning in school. Okay? Does that make sense?
So game theory, it sounds easy, but it's very, very complicated because we're complicated individuals. Each one of us has different identities, has different motivations, and has different outlooks. And, and also, what's really important for us to understand is we're always changing as people. Okay? So the way that you behaved in kindergarten is not the way you behave today in high school, it will not be the way you behave when you enter society. You're always changing because the game is always changing. You must adapt to new games that have different players and have new requirements. Okay? So that's wonderful about us, where we are easily adaptable, where we are, we are resilient. Okay? But, um, we are always changing according to the game, and we are who we are is often determined by the nature of the game. Okay? So you could have come into school wanting to learn, being creative, and all that, but eventually you recognize that that's not really rewarded in school. All right? Getting along, having lots of friends, doing, helping other students cheat, that's rewarded. And so you adapt to the game, and that's why you behave the way you do. Okay? And if you actually go back and think about everything that you did in school, the answer is you're responding to a certain incentive or rule of the game. Okay? And that's what you need to, that's what we need to understand about game theory. Game theory, it's not about ideas. It's not about ideals. It's not the way things should be. It's the way things are. And the way things are are determined by who the players are, and the way players behave is a response to their, the game they believe they're playing. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay.
So, so thank you. Any more questions? Okay, great. So, um, we will continue this next class. Okay."