[cibo]

(05-29-2014 09:29 AM)Basil Ransom Wrote:  

(05-29-2014 06:46 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

Indeed, but that's also my point: if all betas suddenly stopped giving attention to women, you or me would be the first to jump in to reap the spoils, jump-starting the process again. It's an endless cycle.

Giving attention is currently unprofitable for men, which means more and more men will over time realize this and start withdrawing attention. At this point, when giving attention becomes profitable, people will start jumping in, and it will by its nature spin out of control until it becomes unprofitable again. And so on and so on.

Blame the game, not the player (or beta).

You're correct in the particulars. The difference between the players and betas is that the betas dole out attention far beyond the point at which it is advantageous. It's like watering your lawn after it's already water-logged. The player is like a real estate investor who knows when the price is too high and quits looking to buy. At that point, he looks to other assets, like bonds or stocks, to invest his money.

Remember that doling out attention is not free - it requires expending time, time that could be spent in pursuing girls in more effective ways or on other activities altogether. While the cost of a man doling out attention to women is getting cheaper by the day, thanks to mass communication technologies, I'd contend that the Net Pussy Value of these attention-giving mechanisms is under zero, indicating that betas are throwing so much energy into it that it's counter-productive.

So I would say it is NOT a tragedy of the commons, because betas still experience personal costs from what they're doing, even if they're not aware of it. In a real tragedy of the commons, you're still personally benefitting while devaluing the commons.

I agree it sounds more like stag hunt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt
Betas are trading off a better situation for everyone including themselves because they cant cooperate and are being too short-sighted. If everyone stop putting up with girl bs, there would be no incentives give in to girl BS since you would not be getting a better girl by pandering to her.

This is a trust and coordination game and has many parallels to an arms race which also tends to be analyzed through a stag hunt/security dilemma. This means the solution is similar, defectors/white knights need to be punished (prevention of defecting), everyone needs to be aware of defectors/white knights (monitoring), all betas should be aware of the fact every round of defection leads to everyone being worse off (changing the game to long-term pay-offs vs short-term), and stop letting girls get away with bad behavior (social norming) .