THE VIDEO SHELF · prisoner's dilemma
golden balls. the weirdest split or steal ever!
A Golden Balls episode in which one contestant announces he will steal, leading to an unexpected outcome in the split-or-steal prisoner's dilemma.
Why HN readers recommended it
The canonical real-world example in game theory discussions of manipulating a prisoner's dilemma.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- spinout3
- Topic
- prisoner's dilemma
- Format
- other
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 5
- HN mentions in dataset
- 14
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2012–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
This is the most clever I've seen: [VIDEO] He ensures his opponent has nothing to gain from defecting... (Rules etc until 2m 30s, then the game)
surreal on Hacker News · 2014-10
In Rock Paper Scissors Programming CompetitionIf you find this article interesting, Coursera's "Competitive Strategy" [1] is a pretty good introduction on the topic of game theory and how it can be used as a decision-making framework for business, I've found. As a case study, I recommend watching this episode of …
hcarvalhoalves on Hacker News · 2016-09
In What is the Nash Equilibrium and why does it matter?No conversation on game theory is complete until someone brings up Golden Balls, and in particular this amazing moment (warning: terrible audio quality). [VIDEO]
gcanyon on Hacker News · 2025-05
In Game theory illustrated by an animated cartoon game
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.