HackerTube

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 Competition
  • If 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.