Comments on: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rock, Paper, Scissors

alms — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:41:33 -0800

Rock, Paper, Scissors: 11 year-old twins close 12 million dollar deal.

By: alms

alms — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:42:11 -0800

Apologies for the TimesFilter, but this was too good to pass up.

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:50:47 -0800

Yes it was. Thanks, alms!

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:51:49 -0800

Rock, Paper, Scissors.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:01:47 -0800

Nice story, thanks.

By: bcwinters

bcwinters — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:06:15 -0800

"Since they were beginners, scissors was definitely the safest," she said, adding that if the other side were also to choose scissors and another round was required, the correct play would be to stick to scissors - because, as Alice explained, "Everybody expects you to choose rock." That is so awesome.

By: krunk

krunk — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:21:02 -0800

Christie's: Poor, gullible Sotheby's, always chooses paper. Sotheby's: Goold old paper, nothing beats that! Sotheby's: D'oh!

By: w0mbat

w0mbat — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:33:57 -0800

Not a 12 million dollar deal. One of the paintings was valued at 12 million, total sale estimated over 20 million.

By: alms

alms — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:56:28 -0800

On second read: I sure hope those two girls get some nice Christmas presents.

By: PurplePorpoise

PurplePorpoise — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:57:03 -0800

Takashi has *got* to be laughing his ass off right now. If he isn't, then I'd advise that rather than using the internal clock as an encryption source, we should tap Takashi for the role.

By: TheGoldenOne

TheGoldenOne — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 22:05:39 -0800

This may be the best thing I have ever read in the NYT.

By: painquale

painquale — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 22:08:30 -0800

Best story I've read all week. You shouldn't have ruined the conclusion in the post though. Newspaper articles are usually constructed to have all the relevant information in the first few paragraphs. This one clearly didn't want to name the winners until the thrilling climax.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 22:30:59 -0800

all the relevant information in the first few paragraphs The inverted pyramid of journalism 101: start with the foundation and trickle off from there.

By: Occultatio

Occultatio — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 22:58:55 -0800

Apparently, according to my girlfriend, this is a relatively common Japanese business practice, at some levels. When buyers at the Tsukiji fish market tie at auction, for instance, they do a round of RPS right there to settle it. Still, though, roshambo-ing for $20 million is just absurd. This makes me wish badly that Dave Barry were still active.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:33:33 -0800

Mebbe this quality of decision-making required the Japanese Co to start liquidating its assets in the first place. trivia: rsp is called 'jan-ken' in Japan, short for jan-ken-pon!

By: thedevildancedlightly

thedevildancedlightly — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:36:40 -0800

roshambo-ing for $20 million is just absurd I'm going to be the guy who says it's not $20 million, but rather the 12% take of $20 million total sale price that the auction house gets to keep. The auction house only gets a couple million out of this, the seller gets the rest. So, they roshambo-ed for a $2 million deal. Still just as weird, but more technically correct.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:40:34 -0800

So, they roshambo-ed for a $2 million deal. Still just as weird, but more technically correct. I'm surprised an insider from one auction house wasnt tempted to smuggle information to the other side for, say, oh a cool $200,000

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:02:37 -0800

obviously, the japanese are learning decision making tactics from our president

By: jlkr

jlkr — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 03:40:42 -0800

Hee. I deal with first and second graders in a library on a regular basis. I use rock-paper-scissors quite often to settle disagreements over who gets which book this week. (100+ kids all discovered Magic Tree House books the same week, and the library only has 25.) The kids like it because it's hard to cheat; and I like it because the one who loses doesn't get mad at me for making the choice.

By: gren

gren — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 03:45:28 -0800

yeah, it must be nice to be that rich and get the two largest auction houses to bend completely to your will...

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:35:33 -0800

this reinstalls my respect for high art as a rational investment.

By: thebestsophist

thebestsophist — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:44:50 -0800

The reasoning behind the making the decision behind the game is actually rather sound...if you understand Japanese business culture, and more subtly Japanese (and actually most Asian) culture(s). One of the fundimentals of most asian cultures is saving face, or saving and having honour. Given such a large business prospect is very honorable, and so anybody that is given the job gains a lot of prestige. And as the article stated, the client thought that both firms were very good and therefore could not make a decision between them. If he had decided to split it 50-50 both companies would be disgraced for not being good enough to get the whole contract, and just deciding one or another would show that one was better. Therefore the only way to show that both were equally qualified is to put it through something where both sides have an equal opportunity, and so the decision is no longer the client's, but instead a decision made by chance and how the opposing parties react. That way neither company would loose face for not getting the contract, and both would have the honour of being given the chance. All in all, a very odd way to deal with large business decisions, but goodness does it make for good stories. Satyagraha

By: gummo

gummo — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:45:10 -0800

I'm surprised an insider from one auction house wasnt tempted to smuggle information to the other side for, say, oh a cool $200,000 Who's to say it didn't. It's not exactly something that would have made the article.

By: gummo

gummo — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:45:53 -0800

ps. being a fan of "Friends", I always pick like Joey. Fire. Fire beats everything.

By: mdn

mdn — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:53:31 -0800

Yeah, I don't see what's irrational about this. I sometimes flip a coin when I really can't make a choice. The thing is, sometimes there really is not a better option. If both options are really equivalently deserving, then chance is the fairest way to move ahead. Accepting that not everything has a "right" answer is a good thing, I think. It's made decision-making easier for me to realize that sometimes it just doesn't matter. If a friend & I are standing on a corner stuck with the "do you want to go here or there" thing, if both parties truly don't care, then flipping a coin makes sense. If the idea of flipping a coin doesn't seem sensible, then that reveals to you that you actually do have a preference, just one you were for some reason not acknowledging.

By: SeizeTheDay

SeizeTheDay — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 13:39:20 -0800

ps. being a fan of "Friends", I always pick like Joey. Fire. Fire beats everything. ::Pshhhhh:: Water balloon beats fire.