spectrumecons 3Speak Podcast: Recent Episodes

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/xcivnwui
Hi Everyone,

It is time to reveal the results for the 2025 Economics Challenge Series. All six challenges have been posted. Below are the links to these challenges.

• Challenge 1: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 2: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 5: Auction
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win

The challenge series has become an annual event held in July and August. The challenge series normally consists of seven challenges. This year because of some time constraints, it has been reduced to just 6.

The purpose of the challenge series is to enable participants to use their knowledge of basic economic concepts to help them to win. Concepts include demand and supply, game theory, expected value, and location theory.

The challenge series is set up to reward participation. The first 15 participants are upvoted, and the prize increases by 4 Hive Power with each participant until a maximum of 60 Hive Power is reached. There is also a prize for the overall winner. This prize increases by 1 Hive Power and can reach a maximum of 80 Hive Power. Potentially, a lot of Hive Power could be given away.

You can read about the challenge series in any of the challenge posts.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Auction Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner determined in this Video

Video

What is the Auction Challenge?

The auction contest allows participants to bid on up to 5 of 12 items in an auction. The participant who bids the highest wins the item. Each item has a value. However, the values are not stated in the question. Instead, a range of values are stated. These values are generated using the Excel model shown in the video in this post. Participants should aim to win the items without bidding over their values. For example, if an item is valued at $80 and the winning bid is $60, the participant gains $20. The gains and losses made by each participant from their winning bids is summated. The participant who has gained the highest value is the winner. If two participants obtain the same value, the participant who entered first wins.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Auction Challenge

Table 1 contains the bids made by all participants and the winners of each auctioned item.

Table 1: Bids and Winners of Auctions
Note: Green highlighted boxes indicate winning bids, and red highlighted boxes indicate bids after the bid limit has been reached.

Of the 15 participants who entered, 7 won at least one auctioned item. @longannisan and @tortangkahoy won 3 items each, @micheal87 won 2 items, and @lee1938, @tht, @bereal47, and @hatdogsensei won 1 item each. Winning more items does not necessarily equate to obtaining the highest gain in value. The gains in value made per item won is critical in determining the overall winner.

Table 2 contains the values of each item (generated by the model) and the gains in value each participant made on their winning bids. Table 3 contains the overall gains in value made by each participant.

Table 2: Value of Items and Gains Made from Each ItemTable 3: Overall Gain in Value Made by ParticipantsOnly one participant managed to achieve a positive value and that was @micheal87. @micheal87 achieved a positive value of 67. He obtained 34 from winning the first item and 33 from winning the fourth item.

Since a second and third place cannot be determined, the full 60 Hive power goes to @micheal87. @micheal87 also obtains 40 points from this challenge. No other will be given out.

Overall Series Score

After five challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Micheal87 | 80 | | 2 | Goshen | 40 | | 3 | Tortangkahoy | 30 | | 4 | Temple93 | 30 | | 5 | Urrirru | 20 | | 6 | Emeka4 | 15 | | 7 | Bereal47 | 15 | | 8 | Hatdogsensei | 15 | | 9 | Lee1938 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This challenge relies mostly on luck, but there are some strategies that can increase your chances of winning. Here are a few.

• Look for items with a limited number of bids. You can be the last bidder for that item and know you will not be beaten.
• Look for items that have the highest bids below the average (expected value). For example, if an item has a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 150, the expected value is 100. If the highest bid is below 100, it is worth bidding on.
• Look for items with a large range. These items have the best chances of scoring big gains. However, they are also the riskiest. This matters less when there are a large number of participants.
• Entering late provides the best chance of winning auctions, but if there are many participants, there may not be any items worth bidding on. It is worth checking back in on the contest to monitor the number of entries and the items that still look worth bidding on.

The Sapien Loop SeriesI am writing a trilogy of books titled Sapien Loop. The first in the series is Sapien Loop: End of an Era and the second is Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time. I published both of these books as ebooks on Amazon, and I have posted completed chapters to my @captainhive account. I anticipate publishing the third book in early 2027. I expect to title this book Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide. In 2025, I plan to write short stories about some of the characters and their adventures. I will post these to my @captainhive over the course of the year.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: End of an EraThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: Frozen in TimeThis story is based six years after the original story. The Downs Region is still suffering from a serious health crisis caused by the contaminated water. The main characters are desperately trying to find a cure for the illness that has been caused by the water.

One of the main characters has discovered frozen humanoids in hidden chambers. It appears they have been frozen for a long time. These chambers connect to a vast network of tunnels. While exploring the tunnels, one of the frozen humanoids disappears. It appears he has been stolen.

The story takes a step back in time to tell the story of the frozen humanoids. How and why were they frozen? This part of the story also explains the fall of ancient Sapey and the birth of the Sapiens. Can those from the past be able to coexist with those from the present?

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/syvofgdr
Hi Everyone,

It is time to reveal the results for the 2025 Economics Challenge Series. All six challenges have been posted. Below are the links to these challenges.

• Challenge 1: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 2: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 5: Auction
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win

The challenge series has become an annual event held in July and August. The challenge series normally consists of seven challenges. This year because of some time constraints, it has been reduced to just 6.

The purpose of the challenge series is to enable participants to use their knowledge of basic economic concepts to help them to win. Concepts include demand and supply, game theory, expected value, and location theory.

The challenge series is set up to reward participation. The first 15 participants are upvoted, and the prize increases by 4 Hive Power with each participant until a maximum of 60 Hive Power is reached. There is also a prize for the overall winner. This prize increases by 1 Hive Power and can reach a maximum of 80 Hive Power. Potentially, a lot of Hive Power could be given away.

You can read about the challenge series in any of the challenge posts.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Ice Cream Game Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video

Video

What is the Ice Cream Game?

The Ice Cream Game requires participants to select a beach and then a location on that beach to set up an ice cream stand. The stand attracts customers based on its proximity to customers. The stand can only attract customers that do not need to pass another ice cream stand (competitor) to reach it. The ice creams sold by each stand are identical. Therefore, participants cannot compete on price or quality of product.

The objective of the game is to obtain the most customers. If two participants obtain the same number of customers, the participant who entered first wins.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

Results of the Ice Cream Game Challenge

Table 1 contains the locations selected by each participant.

Table 1: Locations Selected by Participants
Note: Participants in red are not considered, as they have selected a location taken by another participant.

Table 2 contains the number of customers on each beach. This includes a basic number that would be attracted to the beach if there was one ice cream stand as well as additional customers attracted to the beach as the number of ice cream stands increases (5% increase per ice cream stand).

Table 2: Total Number of Customers for Each Beach

| Beach | Minimum | Maximum | Final Value (Adjusted) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | West | 400 | 500 | 506 | | East | 350 | 450 | 469 | | North | 300 | 600 | 341 |

Note: Final values may exceed the maximum because the stated maximum does not include the increase in the number of customers caused by more ice cream stands on the beach.

The values used in Table 2 have been used to determine the number of customers the participants’ ice cream stand received based on their locations. See Table 3 for the results of this challenge.

Table 3: Number of Customers for Each ParticipantAs 17 participants entered this challenge, the maximum prize of 60 Hive Power can be won: 40 Hive Power for the winner and 20 Hive Power for second place.

Congratulations to @temple for winning the Ice Cream Game Challenge. He attracted 190 customers to his ice cream stand at West Beach. Second place goes to @urrirru for attracting 171 from North Beach. Third place goes to @hatdogsensei for attracting 168 customers from East Beach. @temple wins 40 Hive Power and 30 points. @urrirru wins 20 Hive Power and 20 points. @hatdogsensei wins 10 points.

Overall Series Score

After four challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Micheal87 | 40 | | 2 | Goshen | 40 | | 3 | Tortangkahoy | 30 | | 4 | Temple | 30 | | 5 | Urrirru | 20 | | 6 | Emeka4 | 15 | | 7 | Bereal47 | 15 | | 8 | Hatdogsensei | 15 | | 9 | Lee1938 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for Future Ice Cream Games

The Ice Cream Game is considerably less complex than most of the other games in the Challenge Series. Participants should consider three important areas before selecting a location.

The expected number of customers for the beach. It is better to select a beach that attracts more customers in respect to its length. The mean number of customers is easy to calculate, as a uniform distribution is used. A higher mean is also likely to attract more ice cream stands. This will further increase the number of customers to the beach. However, this also increases the risk of being surrounded by other ice cream stands, thus limiting the number of customers.

The number of ice cream stands in close proximity. It is better to select a location that is not close to other ice cream stands. At the time of entry, this is difficult to determine, as a participant entering later could choose the location next to yours. To reduce the chances of this happening, it might be wise to select a location next to an undesirable location. The least desirable locations are the end locations. Therefore, the second-from-the-end location is likely to attract relatively more customers if the challenge has a high number of entries.

Timing of entry. Entering early has the advantage of winning tiebreakers, which is important in a game where many participants are likely to attract the same number of customers. However, entering early leaves the participant blind to the actions of others. It is possible that his or her location could become surrounded by later entries. Entering too late puts a participant at a disadvantage, as all the good locations have probably been taken. Entering reasonably early is likely to be better than entering very early (e.g., in the first three) or late (e.g., after the 10th). This timing of entry is most advantageous when there are few entries or when the actions of other participants are not strategic (e.g., selecting end locations).

The Sapien Loop SeriesI am writing a trilogy of books titled Sapien Loop. The first in the series is Sapien Loop: End of an Era and the second is Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time. I published both of these books as ebooks on Amazon, and I have posted completed chapters to my @captainhive account. I anticipate publishing the third book in early 2027. I expect to title this book Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide. In 2025, I plan to write short stories about some of the characters and their adventures. I will post these to my @captainhive over the course of the year.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: End of an EraThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: Frozen in TimeThis story is based six years after the original story. The Downs Region is still suffering from a serious health crisis caused by the contaminated water. The main characters are desperately trying to find a cure for the illness that has been caused by the water.

One of the main characters has discovered frozen humanoids in hidden chambers. It appears they have been frozen for a long time. These chambers connect to a vast network of tunnels. While exploring the tunnels, one of the frozen humanoids disappears. It appears he has been stolen.

The story takes a step back in time to tell the story of the frozen humanoids. How and why were they frozen? This part of the story also explains the fall of ancient Sapey and the birth of the Sapiens. Can those from the past be able to coexist with those from the present?

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/nclyalkz
Hi Everyone,

It is time to reveal the results for the 2025 Economics Challenge Series. All six challenges have been posted. Below are the links to these challenges.

• Challenge 1: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 2: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 5: Auction
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win

The challenge series has become an annual event held in July and August. The challenge series normally consists of seven challenges. This year because of some time constraints, it has been reduced to just 6.

The purpose of the challenge series is to enable participants to use their knowledge of basic economic concepts to help them to win. Concepts include demand and supply, game theory, expected value, and location theory.

The challenge series is set up to reward participation. The first 15 participants are upvoted, and the prize increases by 4 Hive Power with each participant until a maximum of 60 Hive Power is reached. There is also a prize for the overall winner. This prize increases by 1 Hive Power and can reach a maximum of 80 Hive Power. Potentially, a lot of Hive Power could be given away.

You can read about the challenge series in any of the challenge posts.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Pick-a-Door Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video?

Video

What is the Pick-a-Door Challenge?

For the benefit of those who did not enter this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

In this challenge, participants were required to make decisions based on expected payoff and risk. Participants were presented with 12 doors. Behind each door there could be a prize (expressed in dollars). Each door had a possible prize worth a different amount. As the value increased, the probability of the prize being behind the door decreased. For example, Door 3 had an 85% chance of a prize worth $28, and Door 7 had a 50% chance of a prize worth $78. If the prize is not there, the participant will receive a value of zero.

Opening a door cost $15; each participant was given a budget of $60. Therefore, each participant could open as many as 4 of the 12 doors. Participants were not compelled to use all of the budget. If a participant opens 2 or more doors that have zero value behind them, they are eliminated from the challenge. If not eliminated, the winner is the participant with the highest total value expressed in dollars (i.e., the combined value of prizes minus the cost of opening doors).

Responses to the challenge were made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (i.e., commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge is equivalent to 4 times the number of participants (e.g., if the challenge has 9 participants, the prize will be 36 Hive Power (4 × 9)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive Power. The winner receives 2/3 of the prize, and second place receives 1/3 of the prize. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Pick-a-Door Challenge

Table 1 contains the participants and the doors they selected.

Table 1: Doors Selected by ParticipantsTable 2 contains the potential prizes behind each door, the probability that the prize will be there, and the actual prize based on the Excel Model.

Table 2: Prizes Behind Each DoorTable 3 contains the prizes each participant won, the total value of prizes, the criterion of no more than one door with a value of zero (eliminated participant’s totals are in red font), and the Challenge winner (highlighted in red).

Table 3: Challenge WinnerOut of the 19 participants who entered, 9 were eliminated for opening more than one door with a zero value. Of the remaining 10 participants, @goshen obtained the highest total value. This amounted to $212. Three of the four doors opened had a positive value. This included Door 10, which had the highest value. @goshen wins 40 Hive and 40 points. In second place is @bereal47, who also selected three doors with positive values and managed to accumulate a total value of $192. @bereal47 wins 20 Hive and 15 points. In third place is @lee1938 with an accumulated value of $178 and is awarded 5 points.

None of the participants managed to open the combination of doors that would have achieved the highest possible total. This combination would have been Doors 4, 5, 6, and 10. This would have accumulated a total prize worth $310. @goshen was just one box away from obtaining this combination. The winning participants did very well. Selecting the optimal combination would have involved considerable luck.

Overall Series Score

After three challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Micheal87 | 40 | | 2 | Goshen | 40 | | 3 | Tortangkahoy | 30 | | 4 | Emeka4 | 15 | | 5 | Bereal47 | 15 | | 6 | Hatdogsensei | 5 | | 7 | Lee1938 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This challenge relies very heavily on luck. Any of the doors could have prizes behind them. As more participants enter, the results depend even more greatly on luck. Even so, a good strategy could increase your chances of winning. It helps if participants have a good idea of the number of participants entering and the choices they have made. Therefore, entering late offers an advantage in that aspect. For example, if only two participants have entered. Participant 1 has decided to open only Door 1, and Participant 2 to only open Door 12. At this point, Participant 1 has an 88.2% chance of winning, Participant 2 only has a 10% chance of winning, and there is a 1.8% chance they will tie.

Participant 3 could choose to open just Door 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 to have a better chance of winning than either Participant 1 or 2. If Participant 3 knows no other participant will enter, opening Door 2 is the best option. Participant 3 would have over an 81% chance of winning, Participant 1 would only have around a 9% chance of winning (a very big drop), and Participant 2 would still have a 10% chance of winning. There would be less than a 1% chance of a tie. As more participants enter, the chances of winning from selecting high-percentage, low-payout options decrease significantly. Low-percentage, high-payout options may fall, but by a lower percentage.

For this challenge, there were a reasonably high number of participants (15). Selecting high payout options with maybe one low payout option would have been a good strategy. However, the rule of not opening more than one door without a prize increases the risk of selecting high payout options. This risk can be mitigated by selecting to open only three doors instead of four. For example, just opening Doors 3, 10, and 11. This would have obtained a score of 158. In this challenge, that participant would have been fifth.

The Sapien Loop SeriesI am writing a trilogy of books titled Sapien Loop. The first in the series is Sapien Loop: End of an Era and the second is Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time. I published both of these books as ebooks on Amazon, and I have posted completed chapters to my @captainhive account. I anticipate publishing the third book in early 2027. I expect to title this book Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide. In 2025, I plan to write short stories about some of the characters and their adventures. I will post these to my @captainhive over the course of the year.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: End of an EraThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: Frozen in TimeThis story is based six years after the original story. The Downs Region is still suffering from a serious health crisis caused by the contaminated water. The main characters are desperately trying to find a cure for the illness that has been caused by the water.

One of the main characters has discovered frozen humanoids in hidden chambers. It appears they have been frozen for a long time. These chambers connect to a vast network of tunnels. While exploring the tunnels, one of the frozen humanoids disappears. It appears he has been stolen.

The story takes a step back in time to tell the story of the frozen humanoids. How and why were they frozen? This part of the story also explains the fall of ancient Sapey and the birth of the Sapiens. Can those from the past be able to coexist with those from the present?

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/xxywhbkc
Hi Everyone,

It is time to reveal the results for the 2025 Economics Challenge Series. All six challenges have been posted. Below are the links to these challenges.

• Challenge 1: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 2: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 5: Auction
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win

The challenge series has become an annual event held in July and August. The challenge series normally consists of seven challenges. This year because of some time constraints, it has been reduced to just 6.

The purpose of the challenge series is to enable participants to use their knowledge of basic economic concepts to help them to win. Concepts include demand and supply, game theory, expected value, and location theory.

The challenge series is set up to reward participation. The first 15 participants are upvoted, and the prize increases by 4 Hive Power with each participant until a maximum of 60 Hive Power is reached. There is also a prize for the overall winner. This prize increases by 1 Hive Power and can reach a maximum of 80 Hive Power. Potentially, a lot of Hive Power could be given away.

You can read about the challenge series in any of the challenge posts.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Buying and Selling Game Challenge, the second challenge in this year’s challenge series. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video

video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge nor the previously held monthly contests, here is a brief explanation of how the challenge is played.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods, and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns and cities in the challenge. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods at a later date at the same or different location. The selling prices for all goods in all towns and cities are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town and city. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the highest profit after selling all of his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 4 Hive Power (e.g., if the challenge has 9 participants, the prize will be 36 Hive Power (4 × 9)). The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize, and second place will receive 1/3. In addition to the prize in Hive Power, the winner receives 30 points, second place 15 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the prize is below 60 Hive Power and the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Buying and Selling Game Challenge

The prize for this challenge is 60 Hive Power, as there were more than 15 participants.

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each type of bat, stick, and racket in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling Prices of All Exercise Equipment in Each Town or CityTable 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant Responses and Profit
Note: players in red font have been disqualified for overspending.

The winner of the challenge is @tortangkahoy. @tortangkahoy wins 40 Hive Power (60 × 2/3) and 30 points. In second place is @emeka4. @emeka4 wins 20 Hive Power (60 × 1/3) and 15 points. In third place is @hatdogsensei, who is awarded 5 points.

@tortangkahoy won by buying 130 baseball bats for $17 in Roar Town for a total of $39,984. Then went on to sell the baseball bats in Bouncing Town for $25.05 each, earning a revenue of $635,943. Therefore, made a profit of $18,934 ($58,918 – $39,984).

Highest Possible Profit

An extra congratulation to @tortangkahoy for making the maximum profit possible for this challenge possible; see Table 3 below. You have won an extra 5 Hive Power.

Table 3: Lowest Buying Price and Highest Selling PriceRace to Become the Challenge Series Champion

After two challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Micheal87 | 40 | | 2 | Tortangkahoy | 30 | | 3 | Emeka4 | 15 | | 4 | Hatdogsensei | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for Future GamesTo achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e., earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae:

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e., mode closer to maximum)
Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e., mode closer to minimum)
Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

The Sapien Loop SeriesI am writing a trilogy of books titled Sapien Loop. The first in the series is Sapien Loop: End of an Era and the second is Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time. I published both of these books as ebooks on Amazon, and I have posted completed chapters to my @captainhive account. I anticipate publishing the third book in early 2027. I expect to title this book Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide. In 2025, I plan to write short stories about some of the characters and their adventures. I will post these to my @captainhive over the course of the year.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: End of an EraThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: Frozen in TimeThis story is based six years after the original story. The Downs Region is still suffering from a serious health crisis caused by the contaminated water. The main characters are desperately trying to find a cure for the illness that has been caused by the water.

One of the main characters has discovered frozen humanoids in hidden chambers. It appears they have been frozen for a long time. These chambers connect to a vast network of tunnels. While exploring the tunnels, one of the frozen humanoids disappears. It appears he has been stolen.

The story takes a step back in time to tell the story of the frozen humanoids. How and why were they frozen? This part of the story also explains the fall of ancient Sapey and the birth of the Sapiens. Can those from the past be able to coexist with those from the present?

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/pkgsgvzh
Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025! To get this New Year off to a promising start, I would like to announce the winners of the Christmas contest. The winner who received the highest valued presents and the winner who gave the highest valued presents. In many ways, everyone is a winner because I upvoted all the participants' entry comments.

Winner Determined in This Video

How Is the Game Played?

For the benefit of those who did not enter, the Christmas contest required participants to choose a present for themselves, for the participant who entered immediately before them, and for the participant who entered immediately after them. Each participant, in total, received 3 presents. They were given a choice of 12 boxes. Each box may or may not contain a present. The presents were assigned values. If the selected boxes contain these presents, the value of the present is awarded to the participant and contributes to determining if he or she has won the contest. A probability was assigned to each box to determine the likelihood that it contains a present. If the box does not contain a present, it is assumed to have no value.

This contest has two objectives. The first objective is to receive the highest value of presents (one from yourself and two from two other participants). This participant will win 40 Hive Power. The second objective is to give the highest value of presents (one to yourself and two to two other participants). This participant will win 20 Hive Power. These objectives are measured separately; thus, two participants can win Hive Power. The usual contest tiebreaker rules apply. If there is a tie, the participant who entered first wins. The contest post contains more information and can be accessed using the link below.

Results

It is now time to determine our Christmas winners. The GIF below captures the opening of the boxes from the video.

Opening the BoxesWith the boxes open, we can determine our lucky and partly skilful winners. The tables contain the boxes selected by the participants, value received, and value given.

Value Received and GivenThe participant who received the highest value in presents is @practicaleric. @practicaleric received presents worth a total value of $570 (Present 3 worth $210 both times and Present 11 worth $150).

The participant who gave away the highest value in presents was @nathen007. @nathen007 gave away presents worth a total value of $450 (Present 11 worth $150 each time). @nathen007 gave Present 11 to @practicaleric, which contributed to the win. Now that's the spirit of the game.

@practicaleric wins 40 Hive Power and @nathen007 wins 20 Hive Power.

The Grinch ListThis year we have no grinches. Nobody gave away the dreaded Present 4. Oddly, two participants gave themselves Present 4. I guess they would rather not win, hahaha.

Contest Analysis

The results of this contest are based mostly on luck. There are many things beyond a participant’s control. These include the box opening and also the decisions made by the other participants. However, participants can increase their chances of winning through box selection and choosing to enter behind participants that give them the highest chances of winning.

Following a participant who was giving away relatively high-valued and high-probability presents, such as 1 or 11, would have been a sensible strategy. The participant should then give himself or herself that box as well. Selecting Present 11 worked out well. Unfortunately, Present 1 was empty.

Being the highest giver relies more on strategy than being the highest receiver. @nathan007 was the highest giver. There was an 80% chance he would obtain this value. Given the choices made by the other participants, there was almost a 50% chance he would be the highest giver.

My New Book, Sapien LoopI have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien LoopThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

• Amazon USA
• Amazon UK
• Amazon Germany
• Amazon France
• Amazon Spain
• Amazon Italy
• Amazon Netherlands
• Amazon Japan
• Amazon Brazil
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon Mexico
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon India

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/fqlwjplp
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics Challenge Series for 2024. For July and August, I am running an economics challenge series. The series consists of seven challenges. All the challenges will commence in July and early August. I will publish and announce the results in August.

Six of the seven challenges from last year's Challenge Series are returning. The Tax Game from 2022 is replacing the business version of the Buying and Selling Game. Below is the list of challenges.

• Challenge 1: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Complement vs. Substitute
• Challenge 5: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win
• Challenge 7: Tax Game

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive Power. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 5 Hive Power. This will continue until 60 Hive Power is reached (12 participants). The first 12 participants will also receive a 50% upvote from this account.

In addition to the prize money, the top few participants will be given points. These points will be used to determine the overall challenge series winner. This winner may receive as much as 80 Hive Power. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive Power is reached.

For more information on the challenge series, I recommend that you read my post from last year. This year’s Challenge Series is run the same way as last year’s.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Tax Game Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video

What is the Tax Game Challenge?

For this challenge, participants are required to set the tax rate for a very small country. Tax has been simplified to just a percentage of overall income (i.e., no distinction between different taxes such as income tax, corporate tax, GST, etc.). The current tax rate and national income are provided in the question. The participants are required to set the tax rate yearly for the next 3 years (i.e., rate in Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3). They can choose any tax rate they please (anywhere between 0% and 100%).

Changing the tax rate will have both benefits and costs. For example, lowering the tax rate will raise income, but if tax revenue falls as a result of a lower tax rate, there could be a social cost of reduced funding of services provided by the Government. However, social costs will be reduced in the following year, as it is assumed the market will partially adjust to lower or higher Government spending.

The winner will be the participant who achieves the highest total income across the three years minus social costs from changing the tax rate.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive (e.g., if the challenge has 6 participants, the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)) until a value of 60 Hive is reached. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize, and second place will receive 1/3. The first 12 entries will be given upvotes. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 40 points, second place 20 points, and third place 10 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Tax Game Challenge

Table 1 contains the participants and the tax rates they proposed for the challenge.

Table 1: Participants and Their Proposed Tax RatesThe model generated three key parameters for determining income’s responsiveness to tax rate, the social cost of reducing funding for goods and services previously funded by Government (tax revenue reduction only), and the extent the market can compensate from reduced Government spending. Table 2 contains the parameters generated in the model.

Table 2: Model Generated Parameter Values

| Parameter | Value | | --- | --- | | Income Sensitivity | 1.34 | | Welfare Recovery | 1.13 | | Welfare Penalty | 3.26 |

Note: These parameters have very little meaning without the formulae they are applied to. Refer back to the original question for more context.

The parameters were applied to the formulae stated in the question to determine income and social costs for each participant. Tables 3, 4, and 5 contain the income and social costs for each participant for each year. Table 5 also contains the totals and the winner of the challenge.

Table 3: Income and Social Costs Year 1Table 4: Income and Social Costs Year 2Table 5: Income and Social Costs Year 3, Totals, and Challenge WinnerCongratulations to @michael87 for winning the Tax Game Challenge with a total income minus net social cost of $1,579,106,427. @michael87 wins 40 Hive for this challenge (60 × 2/3) and 40 points. @stekene wins 20 Hive (60× 2/3) and 20 points for second place, and @emeka4 is awarded 10 points for third place.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This is a difficult challenge to determine the exact tax rates to use. Participants could enter the formulae given into a spreadsheet to gauge what values give better results. This would be a time consuming exercise, and it is possible something could go wrong entering the formulae, variables, and parameters. Studying the figures provided in the question is an easier alternative approach.

The current tax rate of 45% is high and is stunting economic activity. Lowering the tax rate is the first logical approach. Lowering straight to a more desirable level (e.g., 20%+) will create an immediate social cost as tax revenue would fall quite sharply. Lowering tax revenue more gradually would be a better strategy. Several participants adopted such a strategy. @michael87 judged the optimal tax rate best out of the participants who chose to lower it. If the parameters had been different, a lower or higher tax rate could have offered better results. This is a game that involves skill but also requires some luck.

Overall Series Score

The Economics Challenge Series is over. The points can now be finalised, and a winner can be announced. Below is the final table.

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Emeka4 | 95 | | 2 | Micheal87 | 50 | | 3 | Oskarl21 | 45 | | 4 | Outwars | 40 | | 5 | Urrirru | 35 | | 6 | Bereal47 | 35 | | 7 | Theringmaster | 35 | | 8 | Seki1 | 30 | | 9 | Stekene | 20 | | 10 | Adese | 5 | | 11 | Tough | 5 |

The winner for the 2024 Economics Challenge Series is @emeka4. Well done on such an amazing performance. @emeka4 won two challenges, came second in one, and came third in another. As the total number of participants across all challenges was 78, @emeka4 has won 78 Hive Power. You will receive this 78 Hive Power on the September Hive Power Up Day (HPUD).

My New Book, Sapien LoopI have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien LoppThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

• Amazon USA
• Amazon UK
• Amazon Germany
• Amazon France
• Amazon Spain
• Amazon Italy
• Amazon Netherlands
• Amazon Japan
• Amazon Brazil
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon Mexico
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon India

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/yqtsfkmp
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics Challenge Series for 2024. For July and August, I am running an economics challenge series. The series consists of seven challenges. All the challenges will commence in July and early August. I will publish and announce the results in August.

Six of the seven challenges from last year's Challenge Series are returning. The Tax Game from 2022 is replacing the business version of the Buying and Selling Game. Below is the list of challenges.

• Challenge 1: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Complement vs. Substitute
• Challenge 5: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win
• Challenge 7: Tax Game

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive Power. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 5 Hive Power. This will continue until 60 Hive Power is reached (12 participants). The first 12 participants will also receive a 50% upvote from this account.

In addition to the prize money, the top few participants will be given points. These points will be used to determine the overall challenge series winner. This winner may receive as much as 80 Hive Power. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive Power is reached.

For more information on the challenge series, I recommend that you read my post from last year. This year’s Challenge Series is run the same way as last year’s.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Buying and Selling Game Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge nor the previously held monthly contests, here is a brief explanation of how the challenge is played.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods, and all these goods are available on any of the 5 planets in the challenge. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods at a later date at the same or different location. The selling prices for all goods on all planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good on each planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the highest profit after selling all of his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive Power (e.g., if the challenge has 9 participants, the prize will be 45 Hive Power (5 × 9)). The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize, and second place will receive 1/3. In addition to the prize in Hive Power, the winner receives 30 points, second place 15 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the prize is below 60 Hive Power and the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Buying and Selling Game Challenge

The prize for this challenge is 60 Hive Power as there were 12 participants.

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each type of exercise equipment on each planet.

Table 1: Selling Prices of All Exercise Equipment on Each PlanetTable 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant Responses and ProfitThe winner of the challenge is @seki1. @seki1 wins 40 Hive Power (60 × 2/3) and 30 points. In second place is @emeka4. @emeka4 wins 20 Hive Power (60 × 1/3) and 15 points. In third place is @oskarl21, who is awarded 5 points.

@seki1 won by buying 130 treadmills, 259 rowing machines, and 200 all-in-one fitness machines for $780, $340, and $1500 each, respectively, on Fierce Planet for a total of $489,460. Then went on to sell the treadmills, rowing machines, and all-in-one fitness machines on Proud Planet for $932.28, $333.64, and $2,141.67 each, respectively, earning a revenue of $635,943. Therefore, made a profit of $146,483 ($635,943 – $489,460).

Highest Possible Profit

@seki1 did not manage to obtain the maximum possible profit. To maximise profits, a participant would have needed to buy 333 all-in-fitness machines from Fierce and then have sold them on Proud. This would have generated a profit of $213,676. This could have been boosted slightly higher by buying a couple of spin bikes.

Table 3: Lowest Buying Price and Highest Selling PriceRace to Become the Challenge Series Champion

After five challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Emeka4 | 85 | | 2 | Oskarl21 | 45 | | 3 | Urrirru | 35 | | 4 | Bereal47 | 35 | | 5 | Seki1 | 30 | | 6 | Theringmaster | 15 | | 7 | Micheal87 | 10 | | 8 | Adese | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for Future GamesTo achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e., earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae:

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e., mode closer to maximum)
Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e., mode closer to minimum)
Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

My New Book, Sapien LoopI have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien LoppThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

• Amazon USA
• Amazon UK
• Amazon Germany
• Amazon France
• Amazon Spain
• Amazon Italy
• Amazon Netherlands
• Amazon Japan
• Amazon Brazil
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon Mexico
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon India

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ixbipluh
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics Challenge Series for 2024. For July and August, I am running an economics challenge series. The series consists of seven challenges. All the challenges will commence in July and early August. I will publish and announce the results in August.

Six of the seven challenges from last year's Challenge Series are returning. The Tax Game from 2022 is replacing the business version of the Buying and Selling Game. Below is the list of challenges.

• Challenge 1: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Complement vs. Substitute
• Challenge 5: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win
• Challenge 7: Tax Game

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive Power. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 5 Hive Power. This will continue until 60 Hive Power is reached (12 participants). The first 12 participants will also receive a 50% upvote from this account.

In addition to the prize money, the top few participants will be given points. These points will be used to determine the overall challenge series winner. This winner may receive as much as 80 Hive Power. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive Power is reached.

For more information on the challenge series, I recommend that you read my post from last year. This year’s Challenge Series is run the same way as last year’s.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Pick-a-Door Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video?

What is the Pick-a-Door Challenge?

For the benefit of those who did not enter this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

In this challenge, participants were required to make decisions based on expected payoff and risk. Participants were presented with 12 doors. Behind each door there could be a prize (expressed in dollars). Each door had a possible prize worth a different amount. As the value increased, the probability of the prize being behind the door decreased. For example, Door 3 had an 84% chance of a prize worth $35, and Door 7 had a 50% chance of a prize worth $90. If the prize is not there, the participant will receive a value of zero.

Opening a door cost $20; each participant was given a budget of $80. Therefore, each participant could open as many as 4 of the 12 doors. Participants were not compelled to use all of the budget. If a participant opens 2 or more doors that have zero value behind them, they are eliminated from the challenge. If not eliminated, the winner is the participant with the highest total value expressed in dollars (i.e., combined value of prizes minus cost of opening doors).

Responses to the challenge were made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (i.e., commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge is equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g., if the challenge has 8 participants, the prize will be 40 Hive Power (5 × 8)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive Power. The winner receives 2/3 of the prize, and second place receives 1/3 of the prize. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Pick-a-Door Challenge

Table 1 contains the participants and the doors they selected.

Table 1: Doors Selected by ParticipantsTable 2 contains the potential prizes behind each door, the probability that the prize will be there, and the actual prize based on the Excel Model.

Table 2: Prizes Behind Each DoorTable 3 contains the prizes each participant won, the total value of prizes, the criterion of no more than one door with a value of zero (eliminated participant’s totals are in red font), and the Challenge winner (highlighted in red).

Table 3: Challenge WinnerOut of the 12 participants who entered, 8 were eliminated for opening more than one door with a zero value. Of the remaining 4 participants, @emeka4 obtained the highest total value. This amounted to $224. All four doors opened had a positive value. This included doors with high values, such as 8 and 9. @emeka4 wins 40 Hive and 40 points. In second place is @theringmaster, who also selected four doors with positive values and managed to accumulate a total value of $221. @theringmaster wins 20 Hive and 15 points. In third place is @adese with an accumulated value of $124 and is awarded 5 points.

None of the participants managed to open the combination of doors that would have achieved the highest possible total. This combination would have been Doors 4, 8, 9, and 10. This would have accumulated a total prize worth $349. Both @emeka4 and @theringmaster were just one box away from obtaining this combination. The winning participants did very well. Selecting the optimal combination would have involved considerable luck.

Overall Series Score

After three challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Emeka4 | 70 | | 2 | Urrirru | 35 | | 3 | Bereal | 15 | | 4 | Theringmaster | 15 | | 5 | Micheal87 | 10 | | 6 | Adese | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This challenge relies very heavily on luck. Any of the doors could have prizes behind them. As more participants enter, the results depend even more greatly on luck. Even so, a good strategy could increase your chances of winning. It helps if participants have a good idea of the number of participants entering and the choices they have made. Therefore, entering late offers an advantage in that aspect. For example, if only two participants have entered. Participant 1 has decided to open only Door 1 and Participant 2 to only open Door 12. At this point, Participant 1 has an 84.48% chance of winning, Participant 2 only has a 12% chance of winning, and there is a 3.52% chance they will tie.

Participant 3 could choose to open just Door 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 to have a better chance of winning than either Participant 1 or 2. If Participant 3 knows no other participant will enter, opening Door 2 is the best option. Participant 3 would have over an 80% chance of winning, Participant 1 would only have around a 7% chance of winning (a very big drop), and Participant 2 would still have a 12% chance of winning. There would be less than a 1% chance of a tie. As more participants enter, the chances of winning from selecting high percentage low payout options decrease significantly. Low percentage high payout options may fall, but by a lower percentage.

For this challenge, there were a reasonably high number of participants (12). Selecting high payout options with maybe one low payout option would have been a good strategy. However, the rule of not opening more than one door without a prize increases the risk of selecting high payout options. This risk can be mitigated by selecting to open only three doors instead of four. For example, just opening Doors 4, 9, and 10. This would have obtained a score of 269. In this challenge, that participant would have won.

My New Book, Sapien LoopI have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien LoppThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

• Amazon USA
• Amazon UK
• Amazon Germany
• Amazon France
• Amazon Spain
• Amazon Italy
• Amazon Netherlands
• Amazon Japan
• Amazon Brazil
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon Mexico
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon India

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/hbbhcdum
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics Challenge Series for 2024. For July and August, I am running an economics challenge series. The series consists of seven challenges. All the challenges will commence in July and early August. I will publish and announce the results in August.

Six of the seven challenges from last year's Challenge Series are returning. The Tax Game from 2022 is replacing the business version of the Buying and Selling Game. Below is the list of challenges.

• Challenge 1: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 4: Complement vs. Substitute
• Challenge 5: The Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 6: Even-to-Win
• Challenge 7: Tax Game

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive Power. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 5 Hive Power. This will continue until 60 Hive Power is reached (12 participants). The first 12 participants will also receive a 50% upvote from this account.

In addition to the prize money, the top few participants will be given points. These points will be used to determine the overall challenge series winner. This winner may receive as much as 80 Hive Power. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive Power is reached.

For more information on the challenge series, I recommend that you read my post from last year. This year’s Challenge Series is run the same way as last year’s.

Results

Welcome to the results post for the Ice Cream Game Challenge. This post contains the results as well as how they were generated using a Microsoft Excel model.

Winner Determined in this Video

What is the Ice Cream Game?

The Ice Cream Game requires participants to select a beach and then a location on that beach to set up an ice cream stand. The stand attracts customers based on its proximity to customers. The stand can only attract customers that do not need to pass another ice cream stand (competitor) to reach it. The ice creams sold by each stand are identical. Therefore, participants cannot compete on price or quality of product.

The objective of the game is to obtain the most customers. If two participants obtain the same number of customers, the participant who entered first wins.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

Results of the Ice Cream Game Challenge

Table 1 contains the locations selected by each participant.

Table 1: Locations Selected by Participants
Note: Participants in red are not considered as they have either selected a location taken by another participant.

Table 2 contains the number of customers on each beach. This includes a basic number that would be attracted to the beach if there was one ice cream stand as well as additional customers attracted to the beach as the number of ice cream stands increases (2% increase per ice cream stand).

Table 2: Total Number of Customers for Each Beach

| Beach | Minimum | Maximum | Final Value | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | North | 600 | 800 | 614 | | East | 500 | 1000 | 692 | | West | 800 | 1400 | 1258 |

Note: Final values may exceed maximum because the stated maximum does not include the increase in the number of customers caused by more ice cream stands on the beach.

The values used in Table 2 have been used to determine the number of customers the participants’ ice cream stand received based on their locations. See Table 3 for the results of this challenge.

Table 3: Number of Customers for Each ParticipantA total of 9 participants entered this challenge. Therefore, the prizes for this challenge amount to 45 Hive Power (9 × 5): 30 Hive Power for the winner and 15 Hive Power for second place.

Congratulations to @emeka4 for winning the Ice Cream Game Challenge. He attracted 891 customers to his ice cream stand at West Beach. Second place goes to @urrirru for attracting 614 from East Beach. Third place goes to @micheal87 for attracting 455 customers from South Beach. @emeka4 wins 30 Hive Power and 30 points. @urrirru wins 15 Hive Power and 20 points. @micheal87 wins 10 points.

Overall Series Score

After one challenge, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Emeka4 | 30 | | 2 | Urrirru | 20 | | 3 | Micheal87 | 10 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for Future Ice Cream Games

The Ice Cream Game is considerably less complex than most of the other games in the Challenge Series. There are three important areas that participants should consider before selecting a location.

The expected number of customers for the beach. It is better to select a beach that attracts more customers in respect to its length. The mean number of customers is easy to calculate as a uniform distribution is used. A higher mean is also likely to attract more ice cream stands. This will further increase the number of customers to the beach. However, this also increases the risk of being surrounded by other ice cream stands, thus limiting the number of customers.

The number of ice cream stands in close proximity. It is better to select a location that is not close to other ice cream stands. At the time of entry, this is difficult to determine as a participant entering later could choose the location next to yours. To reduce the chances of this happening, it might be wise to select a location next to an undesirable location. The least desirable locations are the end locations. Therefore, the second from the end location is likely to attract relatively more customers if the challenge has a high number of entries.

Timing of entry. Entering early has the advantage of winning tiebreakers, which is important in a game where many participants are likely to attract the same number of customers. However, entering early leaves the participant blind to the actions of others. It is possible that his or her location could become surrounded by later entries. Entering too late puts a participant at a disadvantage as all the good locations have probably been taken. Entering reasonably early is likely to be better than entering very early (e.g. in the first three) or late (e.g. after the 10th). This timing of entry is most advantageous when there are few entries or when the actions of other participants are not strategic (e.g., selecting end locations).

My New Book, Sapien LoopI have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien LoppThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

• Amazon USA
• Amazon UK
• Amazon Germany
• Amazon France
• Amazon Spain
• Amazon Italy
• Amazon Netherlands
• Amazon Japan
• Amazon Brazil
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon Mexico
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon India

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/kynrkudo
Hi Everyone,

On Sunday, 21st April, my sister (@vegoutt-travel) and I presented at the Irish Vegan Festival in Belfast. This was our third time attending the event and our second time presenting. We presented for the first time in 2022.

Picking a TopicVegan events are typically attended by vegans. Most people become vegan because they believe in animal rights, and several others become vegan for a healthy lifestyle. Most of the presentations at the events are about animal cruelty or the benefits of a vegan diet. Most of the audience already understands these points; it is like preaching to the choir. Hence, they are vegan. Most of these types of presentations are more suited to non-vegan audiences.

I wanted to present something that is not talked about as much in vegan circles. Two years ago, I discussed people’s reasons for reducing meat consumption. This considered a broader group of people that also included vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, pescatarians, and flexitarians. Each group’s primary motivations varied. I discussed these using different surveys. What were the implications for meat and dairy consumption as well as the consumption of alternatives to meat and dairy?

The initial plan was to present at the festival in 2023. However, this was not to be. We did not end up with a time slot to present. However, we had already decided what to present. The presentation was to be based on a post I wrote in January 2023. This post was titled ‘Manipulated for Us’. The post discusses how we, as humans, manipulate the world around us for our own benefit. This post discussed how we change our natural landscape to build huge cities, use various resources to build literally everything we use. The post continues by explaining how we manipulate animals for our own benefit. This part of the post was going to be the focus of our presentation at the Vegan Festival.

A few months after the initial post, I also posted a video in my back garden. The video and post were titled ‘Manipulated for Us: Introducing Hamlet and Lily’. In this video, I provide a very off-the-cuff discussion about how animals are manipulated for us. I pay extra attention to Hamlet the Happy Pig and Lily Goat. This was also a full introduction video to these two amazing characters.

Content of the VideoOur presentation at the Vegan Festival was a combination of my post from a year earlier and the video I made with Hamlet and Lily. I included an additional section about plants. So many of our fruits have been manipulated to be bigger, or have fewer or no seeds. The bulk of my presentation was about how animals are manipulated through breeding to give us more of what we want. See examples below.

• Chickens are bred to grow faster and be bigger, as well as lay more eggs (approximately 20 times more than they would in the wild).
• Cattle are either bred to be bigger and more muscular for more meat or bred to produce more milk.
• Pigs are bred to be bigger for meat and smaller to be pets. They are sometimes bred for organ transplants for humans because they are so similar to us.
• Sheep are bred to grow more and thicker wool.
• Racehorses are bred to be stronger and faster to have more stamina.
• Dogs are bred for hundreds of different reasons. This type of breeding has produced weaknesses in most dog breeds.

My section of the presentation ended by asking what would happen to all these animals if people stopped killing them for meat or using them for other purposes. They already occupy an enormous amount of land. This amount of land is far less than they need to have a decent quality of life. Even if there was sufficient land for them, they are not capable of surviving in the wild. They have been altered so that they are dependent on us.

So what is next? I strongly disagree with culling. I believe the solution is to gradually bring down the numbers. Eventually, the remaining animals can be moved to sanctuaries. People could even have them on their properties if they have the right environment to cater to them. We owe them that much.

My sister took over the presentation. She talked about Hamlet the Happy Pig and Lily Goat. She described what they were like and what was needed to look after them. Taking care of a happy pig has its challenges. Looking after a goat is not so difficult.

She also discussed a former factory farm chicken named Black Betty. She had suffered greatly from the days when she laid an egg a day. After being brought out of that environment, she only laid one egg a month. She finished the presentation off with a discussion about our adopted dogs.

Our presentation lasted roughly around an hour. We both presented for about half an hour each.

References from the Video1. AI Images of plastic surgery and designer babies generated by Bing AI 2. New York City skyline sourced from Istockphoto 3. Dubai floods sourced from Business Insider 4. Population growth figures sourced from The Industrial Revolution 5. Rural-urban migration figures sourced from Urbanet 6. Global GDP and GDP per capita sourced from Our World in Data 7. Minerals used in a lifetime sourced from USGS 8. Annual average food consumption sourced from FoodHow.com 9. Lifetime number of clothing items sourced from Huffington Post 10. Fruit comparisons sourced from Daily Mail and Inside the World of Cellular Biology 11. Animals and how people use them sourced from Wikipedia 12. Image of Indian Aurochs sourced from Wikipedia 13. Image of Wild Boar sourced from Wikipedia 14. Image of Mouflon sourced from Wikipedia 15. Image of Tarpan sourced from Wikipedia 16. Image of Red Jungle Fowl sourced from Wikipedia 17. Chicken sizes and Ross 308 Vox and United Poultry Concerns 18. US egg statistics sourced from United Egg Producers 19. Different breeds of cattle sourced from NayTurr 20. Image of Knickers the Steer sourced from The Verge 21. Beef production sourced from USDA 22. Milk yield per cow sourced from ResearchGate and Statista 23. Poland China pig image sourced from A to Z Animals 24. Picture of various pig sizes (Mini pig to Big Bill) sourced from Change.org petition on mini pigs 25. Picture of a variety of coloured pigs sourced from Radio IQ WVTF 26. Image of award winning giant pig sourced from Gardens Desigusxpro 27. Image of giant pig in china Daily Mail 28. Wild boar and domestic pig comparison sourced from A to Z Animails 29. Lesser beasts story (abusing pigs for profit) sourced from Business Insider 30. Genetic engineering of pigs sourced from MIT Technological Review, SingularityHub and Global reaserch 31. Image of Chris the sheep sourced from BuzzFeed News 32. Image of Baarack the sheep sourced from NDTV 33. Sheep breed information sourced from Sheep 201 34. Image of racehorse Black Caviar sourced from Wikipedia 35. Dog breeds and their health issues sourced from Fetch 36. Mammals and birds in captivity sourced from the Guardian 37. Number of animals killed every year Our World in Data 38. Video of annual animal deaths sourced Daily Loud X account. It was converted to a gif. 39. More information on the number of animals killed annually on Our World in Data and on another page on Our World in Data 40. Animal Kill Clock can be accessed at AnimalClock 41. Song: ‘Legend of Hamlet the Pig’ was created by Suno

Some Nice Food from the Event

Before we could do any of the above, we needed some delicious food. Here is a sample of what we ate.

Thanks for Watching.

My New Book, Sapien LoopI have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien LoppThis story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

• Amazon USA
• Amazon UK
• Amazon Germany
• Amazon France
• Amazon Spain
• Amazon Italy
• Amazon Netherlands
• Amazon Japan
• Amazon Brazil
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon Mexico
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon India

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the first economics contest results post for 2023. Ironically, this will be the only economics contest result post for this year. Later this year, I will run the Economic Challenge Series. This series will last for two months and will consist of seven challenges. They will be similar to the contests and challenges I ran last year. Later this month, I will begin the Sapien Loop contest series. These contests will focus on the contents of my new book, Sapien Loop. The prize will still be 30 Hive Power.

Winner determined in this VideoWhat is the Auction Contest?

The auction contest allows participants to bid on up to 5 of 12 items in an auction. The participant who bids the highest wins the item. Each item has a value. However, the values are not stated in the question. Instead, a range of values are stated. These values are generated using the Excel model shown in the video in this post. Participants should aim to win the items without bidding over their values. For example, if an item is valued at $80 and the winning bid is $60, the participant gains $20. The gains and losses made by each participant from their winning bids is summated. The participant who has gained the highest value is the winner. If two participants obtain the same value, the participant who entered first wins. If nobody obtains a positive gain in value, the contest will not have a winner and the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the contest post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Auction Contest

Table 1 contains the bids made by all participants and the winners of each auctioned item.

Table 1: Bids and winners of auctions
Note: Green font indicates winning bids, and red font indicates bids after the bid limit has been reached.

Of the 16 participants who entered, 6 won at least one auctioned item. @micheal87 won 4 items, @bhattg, @bereal47 and @stekene won 2 items each, and @yummycruz1 and @urrirru won 1 item each. Winning more items does not necessarily equate to obtaining the highest gain in value. The gains in value made per item won is critical in determining the overall winner.

Table 2 contains the values of each item (generated by the model) and the gains in value each participant made on their winning bids. Table 3 contains the overall gains in value made by each participant.

Table 2: Value of Items and Gains Made from Each ItemTable 3: Overall Gain in Value Made by ParticipantsUnfortunately, nobody won this contest. To win this contest, a participant needs to have the highest positive value. Everybody overbid on their auction wins. @urrirru came very close to winning with -0, which was actually -0.5 when considering rounding. If only you bid 776 instead. @stekene appeared to have a good strategy but was unlucky that the values of the items bid on were lower than expected.

Since nobody won, the 30 Hive Power will be rolled over to the next contest. This contest will contain questions about my new book. Therefore, that contest will have a winning prize of 60 Hive Power. If you want a big payday, I suggest you get reading.

Contest Tips and Analysis

This contest relies mostly on luck, but there are some strategies that can increase your chances of winning. Here are a few.

• Look for items with a limited number of bids. You can be the last bidder for that item and know you will not be beaten.
• Look for items that have the highest bids below the average (expected value). For example, if an item has a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 150, the expected value is 100. If the highest bid is below 100, it is worth bidding on.
• Look for items with a large range. These items have the best chances of scoring big gains. However, they are also the riskiest. This matters less when there are a large number of participants.
• Entering late provides the best chance of winning auctions, but if there are many participants, there may not be any items worth bidding on. It is worth checking back in on the contest to monitor the number of entries and the items that still look worth bidding on.

I hope the above tips help. The auction contest could be returning for the Challenge Series later in the year. Make better decisions next time; we need a winner.

More postsI have several collections of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content; one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of them contains my video course, ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collections are what I call my ‘Freedom-based Economics Living Book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it for. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ijwbeiiy
Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year and welcome to 2024! To get this new year off to a hopeful start, I would like to announce the winners of the Christmas contest. Think of the contest and upvotes as the Christmas present, and the prizes as a new year’s gift and motivation to make 2024 a good year. Even if you did not win, take this as practice for the 10 monthly contests and the 7 challenges for 2024. That is 17 more opportunities to win in the next 12 months.

Winner determined in this video

How is the game played?

For the benefit of those who did not enter, the Christmas contest required participants to choose a present for themselves, for the participant who entered immediately before them, and for the participant who entered immediately after them. Each participant, in total, received 3 presents. They were given a choice of 12 boxes. Each box may or may not contain a present. These presents are assigned values. If the selected boxes contain these presents, the value of the present is awarded to the participant and contributes to determining if he or she has won the contest. A probability is assigned to each box to determine the likelihood that it contains a present.

This contest has two objectives. The first objective is to receive the highest value of presents (one from yourself and two from two other participants). This participant will win 25 Hive Power. The second objective is to give the highest value of presents (one to yourself and two to two other participants). This participant will win 15 Hive Power. These objectives are measured separately; thus, two participants can win Hive Power. The usual contest tie-breaker rules apply. If there is a tie, the participant who entered first wins. The contest post contains more information and can be accessed using the link below.

Results

It is now time to determine our Christmas winners. The Gif below captures the opening of the boxes from the video.

Opening the BoxesWith the boxes open, we can determine our lucky and partly skilful winners. The tables contain the boxes selected by the participants, value received, and value given.

Value Received and Given (Participants 1 to 12)Value Received and Given (Participants 13 to 23)The participant who received the highest value in presents, based on the tie-breaker rules, was @biyimi, who entered the contest 7th. @biyimi received presents worth a total value of $290 (Present 10 worth $200, and Present 11 worth $90). @coquicoin also received $290 worth of presents but entered 21st; therefore, lost the tie-breaker.

The participant who gave away the highest value in presents was @urrirru. @urrirru gave away presents worth a total value of $250 (Present 5 worth $50 and Present 10 worth $200). @urrirru gave Present 10 to @biyimi, which contributed to the win. Great Christmas gift indeed.

@biyimi wins 25 Hive Power and @urrirru wins 15 Hive Power.

The Grinch ListThere were a few Grinches in this contest. I consider them Grinches because they choose to give away the horrid Present 6. Time to name and shame.

• @oskarl21
• @sirenahippie
• @melody27

Contest Analysis

The results of this contest are based mostly on luck. There are many things beyond a participant’s control. These include the box opening and also the decisions made by the other participants. However, participants can increase their chances of winning through box selection and choosing to enter behind participants that give them the highest chances of winning.

Following a participant who was giving away relatively high-valued and high-probability presents, such as 3 or 8 would have been a sensible strategy. The participant should then give himself or herself that box as well. @rigomohe may have had that strategy by selecting Present 3 after being given Present 3 by @coquicoin. Ironically, boxes for presents 3 and 8 were empty.

Giving away high-probability and reasonably high-valued presents, such as 1, 5, or 9, is a good a strategy as it reduces the chances of receiving bad presents from the following participant. Giving away the highest valued presents, such as 10 or 12, increases the participants chances of winning the highest giver award.

More postsI have several collections of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content; one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of them contains my video course, ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-based Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Pick-a-door Contest results post. This is the eighth economics contest for 2023. This post contains a video of an Excel Model. This Excel Model determines the winner of the contest by determining which doors contain a positive monetary value behind them.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Pick-a-Door Contest?

For the benefit of those who did not enter this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

In this contest, participants were required to make decisions based on expected payoff and risk. Participants were presented with 12 doors. Behind each door there could be a prize (expressed in dollars). Each door had a possible prize worth a different amount. As the value increased the probability of the prize being behind the door decreased. For example, Door 3 had a 72% chance of a prize worth $34 and Door 9 had a 40% chance of a prize worth $180. If the prize is not there, the participant will receive a value of zero.

Opening a door costs $10. Each participant was given a budget of $40. Therefore, each participant could open as many as 4 of the 12 doors. Participants were not compelled to use all of the budget. If a participant opened 2 or more doors that have zero value behind them, they are eliminated from the contest. If not eliminated, the winner is the participant with the highest total value expressed in dollars (i.e. combined value of prizes minus cost of opening doors).

Responses to the contest were made in the comments section of the contest post. If several participants obtain the same total value, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the Pick-a-door Contest

Table 1 contains the participants and the doors they selected.

Table 1: Doors selected by participantsTable 2 contains the potential prizes behind each door, the probability that the prize will be there, and the actual prize based on the Excel Model.

Table 2: Prizes behind each doorTable 3 contains the prizes each participant won, total value of prizes, and the Contest winner (highlighted in red).

Table 3: Contest WinnerAll participants avoided opening more than one door with a zero value behind it. @pwbanker obtained the highest total value. This amounted to $303. All four doors opened had a positive value. This included doors with high values such as 7 and 9. @pwbanker wins 30 Hive Power.

None of the participants managed to open the combination of doors that would have achieved the highest possible total. This combination would have been Doors 4, 5, and 7, and 9. This would have accumulated a total prize worth $347. @alohaed was just one door away from obtaining this combination.

Contest Tips and Analysis

This contest relies very heavily on luck. Any of the doors could have prizes behind them. As more participants enter, the results depend even more greatly on luck. Even so, a good strategy could increase your chances of winning. It helps if participants have a good idea of the number of participants entering and the choices they have made. Therefore, entering late offers an advantage in that aspect. For example, if only two participants have entered. Participant 1 has decided to open only Door 1 and Participant 2 to only open Door 12. At this point, Participant 1 has an 81% chance of winning, Participant 2 only has a 10% chance of winning, and there is a 9% it will be a tie.

Participant 3 could choose to open any of the Doors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 to have a better chance of winning than either Participant 1 or 2. If Participant 3 knows no other participant will enter, opening Door 2 is the best option. Participant 3 would have over a 72% chance of winning, Participant 1 would only have around a 16% of winning (very big drop), and Participant 2 would still have a 10% of winning. There would be less than a 2% chance of a tie. As more participants enter, the chances of winning from selecting high percentage low payout options decreases significantly. Low percentage high payout options may fall but by a lower percentage.

For this contest, there were a relatively low number of participants (8). Selecting middle percentage middle payout options would have been a good strategy. However, there is still a risk of opening more than one door without a prize. This risk can be mitigated by selecting to open only three doors instead of four. For example, just opening Doors 7, 8 and 9. This would have obtained a score of 285. In this contest, that participant would have placed second.

More postsI have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of the them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Tax Game Contest results post. This is the seventh economics contest for 2023. This post contains a video of an Excel Model. This Excel Model determines the winner of the contest by generating income, tax revenue, and social costs and benefits from the changes participants make to tax rates.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Tax Game Contest?

For this contest, participants are required to set the tax rate for a very small country. Tax has been simplified to just a percentage of overall income (i.e. no distinction between different taxes such as income tax, corporate tax, GST, etc.). The current tax rate and national income are provided in the question. The participants are required to set the tax rate yearly for the next 3 years (i.e. rate in Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3). They can choose any tax rate they please (anywhere between 0% and 100%). Changing the tax rate will have both benefits and costs. For example, lowering the tax rate will raise income but, if tax revenue falls because of a lower tax rate, there could be a social cost of reduced funding of services provided by the Government. However, social costs will be reduced in the following year as it is assumed the market will partially adjust to lower or higher Government spending.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the contest post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the Tax Game

Table 1 contains the participants and the tax rates they proposed for the contest.

Table 1: Participants and their proposed tax ratesThe model generated three key parameters. They are for determining income’s responsiveness to the tax rate, the social cost of reducing funding for goods and services previously funded by Government (tax revenue reduction only), and the extent the market can compensate from reduced Government spending. Table 2 contains the parameters generated in the model.

Table 2: Model Generated Parameter Values

| Parameter | Value | | --- | --- | | Income Sensitivity | 1.05 | | Welfare Recovery | 1.22 | | Welfare Penalty | 5.13 |

Note: these parameters have very little meaning without the formulae they are applied to. Refer back to the original question for more context.

The parameters were applied to the formulae stated in the question to determine income and social costs for each participant. Tables 3, 4, and 5 contain the income and social costs for each participant for each year. Table 5 also contains the totals and the winner of the contest.

Table 3: Income and Social Costs Year 1Table 4: Income and Social Costs Year 2Table 5: Income and Social Costs Year 3, totals and contest winnerCongratulations to @emeka4 for winning the Tax Game Contest with an income net social cost of $1,382,970,763. @emeka4 wins 30 Hive Power.

Contest Tips and Analysis

It is difficult to determine the optimal tax rates to use. Participants could enter the formulae given into a spreadsheet to gauge the values that are likely to give better results. This would be a time consuming exercise and it is possible something could go wrong entering the formulae, variables and parameters. Studying the figures provided in the question is an easier alternative approach.

The current tax rate of 30% is a little high. It is stunting economic activity. Lowering the tax rate is the first logical approach. Lowering straight to a more desirable level (e.g. around 20%) will create an immediate social cost as tax revenue would fall quite sharply. Lowering tax revenue more gradually would be a better strategy. @emeka4 and @michael87 adopted this strategy. @emeka4 choose lower tax rates than @michael87. This achieved a better outcome. @emeka4 was very close to determining the optimal combination of tax rates for this contest. A different combination of parameters could have changed the outcome of this contest. That is the element of luck.

Some participants choose to lower and then raise tax rates or vice versa. This strategy creates a double penalty. There is a social cost of reducing services and reduced benefits from increasing revenue for new initiatives. Participants need to decide on a tax rate they want to target and then work towards it.

More postsI have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ixwjnice
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for the Ice Cream Game Challenge. During the month of August, I will post all the results of the 2023 Economics Challenge Series. I will gradually work through all the seven challenges posted in July. This post contains a video generating the results of this challenge using a Microsoft Excel Model.

Winner Determined in this Video

What is the Ice Cream Game?

The ‘Ice Cream’ Game requires participants to select a beach and then a location on that beach to set-up an ice cream stand. The stand attracts customers based on its proximity to customers. The stand can only attract customers that do not need to pass another ice cream stand (competitor) to reach it. The ice creams sold by each stand are identical. Therefore, participants cannot compete on price or quality of product.

The objective of the game is to obtain the most customers. If two participants obtain the same number of customers, the participant who entered first wins.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

Results of the ‘Ice Cream Game’ Challenge

Table 1 contains the locations selected by each participant.

Table 1: Locations selected by participants

Note: Participants in red are not considered as they have either selected a location taken by another participant or have been disqualified for other reasons.

Table 2 contains the number of customers on each beach. This includes a basic number that would be attracted to the beach if there was one ice cream stand as well as additional customers attracted to the beach as the number of ice cream stands increases (10% increase per an ice cream stand).

Table 2: Total number of customers for each beach

| Beach | Minimum | Maximum | Final Value | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | North | 800 | 2000 | 3262 | | East | 500 | 1200 | 2045 | | West | 100 | 600 | 453 |

Note: Final values may exceed maximum because the stated maximum does not include the increase in the number of customers caused by more ice cream stands on the beach.

The values used in Table 2 have been used to determine the number of customers the participants’ ice cream stand received based on their locations. See Table 3 for the results of this challenge.

Table 3: Number of customers for each participant

A total of 20 participants entered this challenge. Therefore, the prizes for this challenge amount to 60 Hive Power: 40 Hive Power for the winner and 20 Hive Power for second place.

Congratulations to @emeka4 for winning the Ice Cream Game Challenge and a prize of 40 Hive Power and 30 points. @emeka4 achieved the joint highest number of customers with the selection of location NG. @happy411 and @voidd also achieved the same number of customers but came second and third respectively based on the order of entry into the challenge. They all obtained 466 customers each.

@happy411 wins 20 Hive Power and 20 points and @voidd wins 10 points.

Overall Series Score

After five challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Emeka4 | 35 | | 2 | Practicaleric | 25 | | 3 | Drlobes | 25 | | 4 | Micheal87 | 20 | | 5 | Happy411 | 20 | | 6 | Wealthwess | 15 | | 7 | Adedayoolumide | 10 | | 8 | Voidd | 10 | | 9 | Biyimi | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for Future Ice Cream Games

The Ice Cream Game is considerably less complex than most of the other games in the Challenge Series. There are three important areas that participants should consider before selecting a location.

The expected number of customers for the beach. It is better to select a beach that attracts more customers in respect to its length. The mean number of customers is easy to calculate as a uniform distribution is used. A higher mean is also likely to attract more ice cream stands. This will further increase the number of customers to the beach. However, this also increases the risk of being surrounded by other ice cream stands; thus, limiting the number of customers.

The number of ice cream stands in close proximity. It is better to select a location that is not close to other ice cream stands. At the time of entry, this is difficult to determine as a participant entering later could choose the location next to yours. To reduce the chances of this happening, it might be wise to select a location next to an undesirable location. The least desirable locations are the end locations. Therefore, the second from the end location is likely to attract relatively more customers if the challenge has a high number of entries.

Timing of entry. Entering early has the advantage of winning tiebreakers, which is important in a game where many participants are likely to attract the same number of customers. However, entering early leaves the participant blind to the actions of others. It is possible that his or her location could become surrounded by later entries. Entering too late puts a participant at a disadvantage as all the good locations have probably been taken. Entering reasonably early is likely to be better than entering very early (e.g. in the first three) or late (e.g. after the 10th). This timing of entry is most advantageous when there are few entries or the when the actions of other participants are not strategic (e.g. selecting end locations).

More posts

I have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of the them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/tfdhzjtc
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version) Challenge. During the month of August, I will post all the results of the 2023 Economics Challenge Series. I will gradually work through all the seven challenges posted in July. This post contains a video generating the results of the challenge using a Microsoft Excel Model.

Winner determined in this video

Disqualifications

I am quite disappointed with the conduct of several accounts. In Challenge 3, there was a coordinated effort to enable two accounts to win all 60 Hive Power. I have investigated other challenges. A similar stunt has been attempted in Challenge 7. I will discuss this in more detail when I announce the results of that challenge. Even in this challenge, there has been a suspicious clustering of entries, which is most likely another attempt to capture all the prize rewards.

Last year, in Challenge 1, there was another attempt to manipulate results to enable another account to win. This did not appear to happen in the other six challenges. Therefore, I did not raise the problem. This year, the coordinated effort is far more elaborate. I consider it to be completely unacceptable and not in the spirit of these challenges. Below are the disqualified accounts from this challenge series.

• @mickey1036
• @ftouch
• @semperfortis
• @hayomi
• @pana1
• @fatherfaith

The entries these accounts have made in the challenges will remain as they affect the responses made by some of the other participants. For examples, Even-to-Win and Game Theory Game challenges. However, these participants will not be eligible for any prizes or points. These participants will also be stripped of all points earned so far in the series.

These accounts could be run by different individuals or even just one person. After inspecting the transactions made by these accounts, it is quite likely that all these accounts belong to just one or two people.

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants were required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They were given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They were required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants were required to set the prices of the goods they had bought or produced. All costs were provided in the question. However, demand for each good was not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined using an Excel Model using triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive Power until a value of 60 Hive Power is reached. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3. The first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner of this challenge will be given 25 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points. These points will be tallied at the end of the challenge series to determine the overall winner. An additional 5 Hive Power and 5 points can be won if the winning participant obtains a higher or equivalent profit to the model’s built in estimator.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

Below are the links to all seven challenges in the series.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 3: Complements and Substitutes
• Challenge 4: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 5: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 6: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 7: Even-to-Win

Results of the Challenge

As the number of participants exceeded 12, I needed to run the model twice. Figure 1 contains the demand curves for the first 12 participants in order of entry and Figure 2 contains the demand curves for the next 6 participants. The two sets of graphs are similar but the differences still have some bearing on the profit made by each participant.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curves (First 12)

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curves (Next 6)

Table 1 contains responses, quantities sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

As the number of participants exceeded 12, the prizes for this challenge add up to 60 Hive Power.

Congratulations to @drlobes for winning Challenge 4 with a profit of $450. @drlobes wins 40 Hive Power for this challenge and 25 points. @adedayoolumide wins 20 Hive Power and 10 points for second place and @biyimi is awarded 5 points for third place.

@drlobes bought 50 shovels at $15 per shovel, 40 spades at $18 per spade, and 30 rakes at $16 per rake. @drlobes priced them to sell at $20, $30, and $25 respectively. At those prices, all shovels and spades were sold and 18 rakes remained unsold. This generated a total revenue of $2500 ($1000 for shovels, $1200 for spades, and $300 for rakes). The total cost of buying these garden tools was $2050 ($750 for shovels, $720 for spades, $480 for rakes, and $100 daily overhead). @drlobes's total profit was $450.

Overall Series Score

After four challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Practicaleric | 25 | | 2 | Drlobes | 25 | | 3 | Micheal87 | 20 | | 4 | Wealthwess | 15 | | 5 | Adedayoolumide | 10 | | 6 | Emeka4 | 5 | | 7 | Biyimi | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one type of good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

I have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of the them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/opnqnbbv
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for the Pick-a-Door Challenge. During the month of August, I will post all the results of the 2023 Economics Challenge Series. I will gradually work through all the seven challenges posted in July. This post contains a video generating the results of the challenge using a Microsoft Excel Model.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Pick-a-Door Challenge?

For the benefit of those who did not enter this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

In this challenge, participants were required to make decisions based on expected payoff and risk. Participants were presented with 12 doors. Behind each door there could be a prize (expressed in dollars). Each door had a possible prize worth a different amount. As the value increased the probability of the prize being behind the door decreased. For example, Door 3 had a 75% chance of a prize worth $26 and Door 7 had a 50% chance of a prize worth $74. If the prize is not there, the participant will receive a value of zero.

Opening a door cost $15, each participant was given a budget of $60. Therefore, each participant could open as many as 4 of the 12 doors. Participants were not compelled to use all of the budget. If a participant opened 2 or more doors that have zero value behind them, they are eliminated from the challenge. If not eliminated, the winner is the participant with the highest total value expressed in dollars (i.e. combined value of prizes minus cost of opening doors).

Responses to the challenge were made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge is equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 8 participants the prize will be 40 Hive Power (5 × 8)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive Power. The winner receives 2/3 of the prize and second place receives 1/3 of the prize. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

Below are the links to all seven challenges in the series.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 3: Complements and Substitutes
• Challenge 4: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 5: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 6: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 7: Even-to-Win

Results of Challenge 2

Table 1 contains the participants and the doors they selected.

Table 1: Doors selected by participants

Table 2 contains the potential prizes behind each door, the probability that the prize will be there, and the actual prize based on the Excel Model.

Table 2: Prizes behind each door

Table 3 contains the prizes each participant won, total value of prizes, the criterion of no more than one door with a value of zero (eliminated participants totals are in red font), and the Challenge winner (highlighted in red).

Table 3: Challenge Winner

Out of the 24 participants who entered, 18 were eliminated for opening more than one door with a zero value. Of the remaining 6 participants, @ftouch obtained the highest total value. This amounted to $276. Three of the four doors opened had a positive value. This included doors with high values such as 8 and 12. @ftouch wins 40 Hive and 30 points. In second place is @wealthwess who also selected three doors with positive values and managed to accumulate a total value of $220. @wealthwess wins 20 Hive and 15 points. In third place is @emeka4. @practicaleric obtained the same total value as @emeka4 but lost the tiebreaker based on time of entry. @emeka4 obtained a total value of $146. @emeka4 is awarded 5 points.

None of the participants managed to open the combination of doors that would have achieved the highest possible total. This combination would have been Doors 5, 8, and 9, and 12. This would have accumulated a total prize worth $430. @wealthwess was just one box away from obtaining this combination. The winning participants did very well. Selecting the optimal combination would have involved considerable luck.

Overall Series Score After just two challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Ftouch | 30 | | 2 | Practicaleric | 25 | | 3 | Wealthwess | 15 | | 4 | Semperfortis | 10 | | 5 | Fatherfaith | 5 | | 6 | Emeka4 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This challenge relies very heavily on luck. Any of the doors could have prizes behind them. As more participants enter, the results depend even more greatly on luck. Even so, a good strategy could increase your chances of winning. It helps if participants have a good idea of the number of participants entering and the choices they have made. Therefore, entering late offers an advantage in that aspect. For example, if only two participants have entered. Participant 1 has decided to open only Door 1 and Participant 2 to only open Door 12. At this point, Participant 1 has an 83.6% chance of winning, Participant 2 only has a 12% chance of winning and there is a 4.4% they will tie.

Participant 3 could choose to open just Door 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 to have a better chance of winning than either Participant 1 or 2. If Participant 3 knows no other participant will enter, opening Door 2 is the best option. Participant 3 would have over a 70% chance of winning, Participant 1 would only have around a 17% of winning (very big drop), and Participant 2 would still have a 12% of winning. There would be less than a 1% chance of a tie. As more participants enter, the chances of winning from selecting high percentage low payout options decreases significantly. Low percentage high payout options may fall but by a lower percentage.

For this challenge, there were a high number of participants (24). Selecting low percentage high payout options would have been the best strategy. However, the rule of not opening more than one door without a prize, increases the risk from selecting these high payout options. This risk can be mitigated by selecting to open only two or three doors instead of four. For example, just opening Doors 11 and 12. This would have obtained a score of 180. In this challenge, that participant would have placed third.

More posts

I have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of the them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/bkxlcebq
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for the Buying and Selling Game. During the month of August, I will post all the results of the 2023 Economics Challenge Series. I will gradually work through all the seven challenges posted in July. This post contains a video generating the results of the challenge using a Microsoft Excel Model.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge nor the monthly contests, here is a brief explanation of how the challenge is played.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns or cities in the challenge. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods at a later date at the same or different location. The selling prices for all goods in all towns or cities are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town or city. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the highest profit after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive Power (e.g. if the challenge has 9 participants the prize will be 45 Hive Power (5 × 9)). The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3. In addition to the prize in Hive Power, the winner receives 25 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the prize is below 60 Hive Power and the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other Challenges

Below are the links to all seven challenges in the series.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 3: Complements and Substitutes
• Challenge 4: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 5: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 6: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 7: Even-to-Win

Results of Challenge 1

The prize for Challenge 1 is 60 Hive Power as the number of participants exceeded 12.

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each flower in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all flowers in each town or city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

*Note: one was participant eliminated for exceeding the budget of $8,000

The winner of challenge 1 is @practicaleric. @practicaleric wins 40 Hive Power (60 × 2/3) and 25 points. In second place is @semperfortis. @semperfortis wins 20 Hive Power (60 × 1/3) and 10 points. In third place is @fatherfaith who is awarded 5 points.

@practicaleric won by buying 9090 red roses for $0.88 each in Green Town for a total of $7,999.20. Then went on to sell these red roses at Arboretum for $1.318 each; thus, earning a revenue of $11,980.62. Therefore, made a profit of $3,981($11,980.62 – $7,999.20).

Highest possible profit

@practicaleric also managed to obtain the highest possible profit with his selection of flowers and locations for buying and selling.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion

After just one challenge, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Practicaleric | 25 | | 2 | Semperfortis | 10 | | 3 | Fatherfaith | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the Buying and Selling Game monthly contest series, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

I have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of the them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ergfeoes
Hi Everyone,

At the beginning of 2023, I wrote a post titled 'Manipulated for Us'. The post discussed how people manipulate the world around them for their own perceived benefit. It discusses both the good and bad aspects of this manipulation. However, most of the post focused on animals and animal breeding.

In the video, I continue the discussion on the manipulation of animals through breeding. With me, I have my two good companions, Hamlet the Happy Pig and Lily Goat. Both of them have been bred to be a particular way.

Hamlet the Happy Pig

Hamlet is a product of many breeding practices. Initially, her ancestors were bred to be big and muscular for the purpose of being eaten. More recent generations were selected to be bred as pets. Pigs with short legs and/or spines were bred to produce offspring with shorter legs and spines. This type of breeding has only been practiced for a few generations. Therefore, a new breed has not been officially created but the pigs through this program are considerably smaller than their ancestors bred purely to be eaten. These smaller pigs are often refereed to as pygmy, miniature, mini, or Juliana pigs (particular type of small pig). Sadly, some of these miniature pigs die young because of skeletal problems and weakened immune systems, which is also a product of their breeding.

Lily Goat

Lily is a pygmy goat. She is really small. This is again because of breeding. She has not been modified to the extent as Hamlet. She has been bred to be considerably smaller than other goats but her body proportions are not radically changed because of breeding. As far as I am aware, the breeding to reduce size does not seem to add any medical complications. I expect pygmy goats immune systems are still compromised. Goats, particularly small ones, can fall sick very quickly. Other than the first week she arrived, Lily has been in great health. She was a bit ill from the stress of being cooped up in a small space while the fences were being put up in the garden.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Hamlet Attacks Water Trough

We had an after filming accident. I think Hammy got angry with the water trough. Not to worry, I had a new one in reserve.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the fifth economics contest results post for 2023. The Ice Cream Game contest is a brand new contest for 2023. The contest tests participants’ ability to select a location that will attract the most customers to buy their ice cream. This contest will return later this year as part of the Economics Challenge Series.

What is the Ice Cream Game?

The ‘Ice Cream’ Game requires participants to select a beach and then a location on that beach to set-up an ice cream stand. The stand attracts customers based on its proximity to customers. The stand can only attract customers that do not need to pass another ice cream stand (competitor) to reach it. The ice creams sold by each stand are identical. Therefore, participants cannot compete on price or quality of product.

The objective of the game is to obtain the most customers. If two participants obtain the same number of customers, the participant who entered first wins.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself. For a more detailed explanation, you should read the contest post or watch the contest series introduction video, which also explains this contest and the other upcoming contests for this year.

Results of the ‘Ice Cream Game’ Contest

Table 1 contains the locations selected by each participant.

Table 1: Locations selected by participants
Note: Participants in red are not considered as they selected a location taken by another participant.

Table 2 contains the number of customers if there was just one ice cream seller (Value). It also contains the number of customers if we consider the additional customers attracted by more ice cream sellers on the beach (fin Value).

Table 2: Total number of customers for each beach

| Beach | Minimum | Maximum | Value | Fin Value | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | West | 400 | 600 | 419 | 587 | | East | 400 | 1200 | 954 | 1813 | | South | 500 | 700 | 638 | 1021 |

The values used in Table 2 have been used to determine the number of customers the participants’ ice cream stand received based on their locations. See Table 3 for the results of this contest.

Table 3: Number of customers for each participantCongratulations to @hayomi for winning the Ice Cream Game Contest and a prize of 30 Hive Power.

@hayomi selected EC. This is the third location for the East Beach. This location attracted the most customers because the first two locations (EA and EB) on the beach were not selected and because the East Beach attracted reactively more customers for its length than the other beaches.

Tips for future Ice Cream Games

The Ice Cream Game is considerably less complex than most of the other games in the Economics Contest Series. There are three important areas that participants should consider before selecting a location.

The expected number of customers for the beach. It is better to select a beach that attracts more customers in respect to its length. The mean number of customers is easy to calculate as a uniform distribution is used. A higher mean is also likely to attract more ice cream stands. This will further increase the number of customers to the beach. However, this also increases the risk of being surrounded by other ice cream stands; thus, limiting the number of customers.

The number of ice cream stands in close proximity. It is better to select a location that is not close to other ice cream stands. At the time of entry, this is difficult to determine as a participant entering later could choose the location next to yours. To reduce the chances of this happening, it might be wise to select a location next to an undesirable location. The least desirable locations are the end locations. Therefore, the second from the end location is likely to attract relatively more customers in a contest with a high number of entries.

Timing of entry. Entering early has the advantage of winning tiebreakers, which is important in a game where many participants are likely to attract the same number of customers. However, entering early leaves the participant blind to the actions of others. It is possible that his or her location could become surrounded by later entries. Entering too late puts a participant at a disadvantage as all the good locations have probably been taken. Entering reasonably early is likely to be better than entering very early (e.g. in the first three) or late (e.g. after the 10th). This timing of entry is most advantageous when there are few entries or the when the actions of other participants are not strategic (e.g. selecting end locations).

More postsIf you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/usrtezok
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Make Me Happy Contest results post. This is the fourth economics contest for 2023. This post contains a video of an Excel Model. This Excel Model determines the winner of the contest by generating utility values for activities and the overall utility for characters selected by the participants.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Make Me Happy Contest?

The Make Me Happy Contest focuses on maximising the utility of different characters who have different preferences. Participants can choose between 5 different characters. Participants are required to maximise the utility of their character using 168 hours in a week. This involves earning sufficient money to pay for basic needs and to pay for activities that yield their character utility. Characters can only earn money from working. Working itself yields at least some utility but it is generally lower than most other activities. Characters do not start the week with any money and any remaining money yields no utility. To win the contest, the participant must produce the highest utility for his or her character while not exceeding the character’s earned income for that week.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the contest post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the Make Me Happy Contest

Tables 1 and 2 contains the allocation of time for each activity by all participants for this contest.

Table 1: Allocation of time for each activity (Participants 1 to 5)Table 2: Allocation of time for each activity (Participants 6 to 11)Table 3 contains the utility for each activity for all 5 characters.

Table 3: Utility of Activities for each CharacterTable 4 contains the utility generated by each participant’s character

Table 4: Utility generated by each participant's characters

| Participants | Characters | Utility | | --- | --- | --- | | crrdlx | Randall | 779 | | bereal47 | Gemima | 1,879 | | micheal87 | Emmanuel | 1,446 | | adedayoolumide | Isaac | 1,814 | | adeyemi12 | Emmanuel | 1,405 | | faruq10 | Emmanuel | 1,516 | | seki1 | Isaac | 2,232 | | emeka4 | Sophia | 1,434 | | pana1 | Isaac | 2,251 | | fatherfaith | Isaac | 2,397 | | voidd | Sophia | 1,246 |

This contest was quite close. @fatherfaith won by just 146 Utils after allocating time for his character Isaac. @fatherfaith spread time over a few different activities but mostly focused on camping, which is Isaac’s favourite activity. Congratulations @fatherfaith, you win 30 Hive Power.

Contest Tips and Analysis

This contest involved a careful balancing act between earning income, choosing high utility activities, and low cost activities. Different characters required different approaches. For example, Gemima obtains utility from many different activities (e.g. watching TV, social media, gardening, camping, painting, and even working). Therefore, spreading time more evenly across these many activities is likely to produce higher utility for her as well as avoids diminishing utility from dedicating too much time to one activity. Working extra hours is also not a problem as she enjoys her work so much and the value of her time spent working does not diminish over time.

For a character like Randall, time would be better off concentrated on just one activity such as just social media. He also enjoys painting but his enjoyment diminishes relatively quickly compared with other activities. He enjoys eating out but it is expensive and he may lack the budget to do so too often considering that he does not enjoy his work and is also paid very little.

A character like Isaac would be fairly easy to work with because he earns a good wage and enjoys his work with minimal diminishing marginal utility. He also has a relatively low basic expenditure. Most of Isaac’s favourite activities are low cost. For this character, participants should focus on allocating time to activities such as reading a book and camping as they provide high utility and this does not diminish by much over time.

Examples of allocations of time for Randall, Gemima, and IsaacMost of the participants understood the concepts of maximising utility by focusing on the activities that provided the highest chances of obtaining high utility. You all deserve a round of applause.

More postsIf you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/vcqdchth
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) Contest results post. This is the third economics contest for 2023. This post contains a video of an Excel Model. This Excel Model determines the winner of the contest by generating costs and benefits for investment decisions made by the participants.

Winner determined in this videoWhat is the CBA Contest?

The CBA Contest is an investment challenge, which assesses the investment decisions of participants using CBA methodology. Participants are given the responsibility for providing investment advice for four towns and cities. They can recommend investment in education, healthcare, transport, and/or entertainment. Investment options relate to increasing capacity. Capacity of existing infrastructure and amenities can be increased by 5%, 10%, 20% or 50%. Participants are given $12 Billion to spend on investment decisions but are not compelled to spend all of it. The objective of the contest is to obtain the highest Net Present Value (NPV). This is determined by subtracting discounted net costs from discounted net benefits.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the contest post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the CBA Contest

Table 1 contains the growth rates generated by the Excel Model for adults, children, elderly and tourists for the four towns and cities.

Table 1: Population Growth RatesTable 2 contains the investment decisions made by the nine participants who entered this contest.

Table 2: Participants Investment Decisions
Note: Yellow numbers represent numbers that have been changed because they did not align with the percentage increases required by the question (5%, 10%, 20%, or 50%). Some have been rounded up and some rounded down.

Table 3 contains the benefits, costs, and NPV of the investment decisions made by each participant.

Table 3: Benefits, Costs, and NPV of Investment Decisions
Note: participants in red exceeded the $12 Billion budget.

The winner of the CBA Contest by obtaining the highest NPV is @crrdlx. @crrdlx achieved an NPV of $2,694,957,578. @crrdlx focused on increasing hospital and transport capacity in the towns and cities. @crrdlx wins 30 Hive Power

Contest Tips

The aim of this contest was to achieve the highest possible Net Present Value (NPV). In order to achieve a high NPV, benefits need to greatly exceed investment costs.

For this CBA, benefits are equivalent to user cost reductions. Insufficient healthcare, education, transport, and entertainment were assumed as user costs; reducing these user costs is a benefit of investment. If a user cost is high in the base case (in the absences of the upgrade) and is low in the project case (with the upgrade), the benefit from the upgrade is high. This requires two conditions. The first condition is that the costs are high in the base case. For example, hospital capacity is far exceeded and many people will be dying if capacity is not increased. The second condition is that the upgrade significantly reduces the user cost. For example, the upgrade in hospital capacity is sufficient to handle the number of patients and the number of unnecessary deaths are greatly reduced.

How do we know that the costs in the base case are going to be high? We should consider three things. The population growth rates, current usage and occupancy rates, and the costs of exceeding capacity. If all three are high, user costs will be high. Evaluation period (e.g. asset life) was also a factor to consider in this CBA. The evaluation period was long (20 years). This meant that growth rates played a bigger role in determining the user costs. The discount rate (4%) reduced this impact a little. Population growth rates were unknown to the participants but they were provided with a range. Participants should have considered the expected value for growth rates and the areas they are likely to impact the most.

Capacity upgrades have varying effects on benefits. Larger capacity upgrades are needed to respond to user costs caused by high growth rates. Smaller capacity upgrades could be good for handling user costs caused by high costs of overcapacity when growth rates are close to zero. The question did not offer any clear opportunities for this approach to investment.

Figure 1 contains the total user costs for the towns and cities, capacity upgrades that could lower some of these user costs, the investment costs required for these upgrades, and possible prioritising of investment.

Figure 1: Possible Investment Approach (Good return on investment)
Note: Priorities in green were selected for investment. Priorities in red were not selected because of insufficient funding.

All investment costs are provided in the question and there are no maintenance or operational costs to be concerned about. The cost of investment in cities was much higher as the percentage increases to capacity would be far more extensive (e.g. increasing 100 by 10% is only 10 but increasing 1,000 by 10% is 100). Investing in towns enables us to do more with less money.

In Figure 2, I compare the participant’s NPV with the NPV using the example shown in Figure 1. I recalculated four times to obtain a range of possible results; there is some benefit of hindsight that participants did not have.

Figure 2: Participants NPV vs. Example
Note: Not included in video, will show next time when I run this contest.

I would like to thank the following participants for attempting this challenging contest:

• @fatherfaith
• @michael87
• @emeka4
• @josediccus
• @voidd
• @bereal47
• @seki1
• @pana1

This is most likely to be the most complicated contest for this year. The CBA Contest is likely to return in some form in 2024. Another contest will be posted later this month.

More postsIf you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/shulukyz
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the second economics contest results post for 2023. The auction contest was introduced in the Economics Challenge Series in 2021. Every month there will be a different type of contest. The auction contest may return later this year as part of the Economics Challenge Series.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Auction Contest?

The auction contest allows participants to bid on up to 5 of 12 items in an auction. The participant who bids the highest wins the item. Each item has a value. However, the values are not stated in the question. Instead, a range of values are stated. These values are generated using the Excel Model shown in the video in this post. Participants should aim to win the items without bidding over their values. For example, if an item is valued at $80 and the winning bid is $60, the participant gains $20. The gains and losses made by each participant from their winning bids is summated. The participant who has gained the highest value is the winner. If two participants obtain the same value. The participant who entered first wins. If nobody obtains a positive gain in value, the contest will not have a winner and the prize will be rolled over to the next contest in March.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the contest post. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of Auction Contest

Table 1 contains the bids made by all participants and the winners of each auctioned item.

Table 1: Bids and winners of auctions
Note: Green font indicates winning bids and red font indicates bids after the bid limit has been reached.

Of the 14 participants who entered, 6 participants won at least one auctioned item. @void and @bhoa won 3 items each, @crrdlx and @fatherfaith won 2 items each, and @seki1 and @josediccus won 1 item each. Winning more items does not necessarily equate to obtaining the highest gain in value. The gains in value made per item won is critical in determining the overall winner.

Table 2 contains the values of each item (generated by the model) and the gains in value each participant made on their winning bids. Table 3 contains the overall gains in value made by each participant.

Table 2: Value of items and gains made from each itemTable 3: Overall gain in value made by participantsCongratulations to @crrdlx for winning the Auction Contest with a gain in value of $427. @crrdlx won Items 1 and 8 in the auction. @crrdlx made a gain of $97 on Item 1 and $330 on Item 8. @crrdlx wins 30 Hive Power.

Contest Tips and Analysis

@crrdlx played the game very well. @crrdlx entered midway through the contest. This was late enough to give him a chance to outbid the earlier entries but not too late to miss out on the items that had a limited number of bids. @crrdlx focused on Items that had limited bids. This strategy guaranteed winning Item 1 and placed him in a good position to win Items 5, 7, and 8; eventually winning Item 8. All of @crrdlx’s winning bids were below the expected value of the items. Expected value for Item 1 was $575 ((300+850)/2) and the expected value for Item 8 was $550 ((100+1000)/2). Both Items had a wide range of values. Therefore, there was a high risk of losing a significant amount on either or both Items 1 and 8. This risk appears worth it considering the high number of participants (14). The choices @crrdlx had made gave him more than a 50% chance of winning. The potential gain in value for the other participants was considerably lower, as their winning bids were much closer to the maximum value.

More postsIf you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/pcmubghj
Hi Everyone,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The Christmas Contest marks the beginning of my new series of contests. Christmas and the New Year feels like a great time to start something new as well as contribute to the season of giving. I hope all who participated had fun. A brand new contest will begin in January.

Winner determined in this video

How is the game played?

For the benefit of those who did not enter. The Christmas contest required participants to choose a present for themselves, for the participant who entered immediately before them, and for the participant who entered immediately after them. Each participant, in total, received 3 presents. They were given a choice of 12 boxes. Each box may or may not contain a present. These presents are assigned values. If the selected boxes contain these presents, the value of the present is awarded to the participant and contributes to determining if he or she has won the contest. A probability is assigned to each box to determine the likelihood that it contains a present.

This contest has two objectives. The first objective is to receive the highest value of presents (one from yourself and two from two other participants). This participant will win 30 Hive Power. The second objective is to give the highest value of presents (one to yourself and two to two other participants). This participant will win 10 Hive Power. These objectives are measured separately; thus, two participants can win Hive Power. The usual contest tie-breaker rules apply. If there is a tie, the participant who entered first wins. The contest post contains more information and can be accessed using the link below.

Results

It is now time to determine our Christmas winners. The Gif below captures the opening of the boxes from the video.

Opening the BoxesWith the boxes open, we can determine our lucky and partly skilful winners. The tables contain the boxes selected by the participants, value received, and value given.

Value Received and Given (Participants 1 to 16)Value Received and Given (Participants 17 to 29)The participant who received the highest value in presents, based on the tie-breaker rules, was @eijibr, who happened to be the contest’s first participant. @eijibr received presents worth a total value of $245 (Present 11 worth $90, Present 1 worth $80, and Present 12 worth $75). @adedayoolumide also received $245 worth of presents but entered later; therefore, lost the tie-breaker.

The participant who gave away the highest value in presents was @pana1, who happened to be the contest’s last participant. @pana1 gave away presents worth a total value of $240 (Present 1 worth $80, Present 8 worth $85, and Present 12 worth $75). Your actions contributed to @eijibr winning this contest. Great Christmas gift indeed.

@eijibr wins 30 Hive Power and @pana1 wins 10 Hive Power.

The Grinch ListThey were a few Grinches in this contest. I consider them Grinches because they choose to give away the horrid Present 5. Time to name and shame.

• @micheal87
• @stekene
• @voidd
• @maro1
• @brittandjosie
• @royalevidence

Contest Analysis

The results of this contest are based mostly on luck. There are many things beyond a participant’s control. These include the box opening and also the decisions made by the other participants. However, participants can increase their chances of winning through box selection and choosing to follow behind participants that give them the highest chances of winning.

Following a participant who is giving away Present 4 or 6 to the participant following them is a good choice. Unfortunately, no participants gave Present 4 to anyone following them. However, Present 6 was given out a few times. A smart decision would be to follow the participant who gave away Present 6 and then to give yourself Present 6 as well. This would double your potential value without reducing your probability of receiving that present. If the participant who follows also gives you Present 6, your potential has tripled without reducing your probability of receiving that present.

It appears @adeyemi12 followed this strategy and received Present 6 three times. Unfortunately, Box 6 was empty even though there was an 85% it contained the present. Just the way luck played out in this game.

More postsIf you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/swsdfiyf
Hi Everyone,

As 2022 draws to a close, it is time to say good bye to the Buying and Selling Game monthly contests. In 2023, we will start a new series. This series will be held monthly. It will be held in 10 of the 12 months. The remaining two months are reserved for the 2023 Economics Challenge Series. Each contest in the series will be unique. Some of the contests will be from previous challenge series and others will be completely new. Below is a list of the 10 contests.

• Auction Contest (Updated Version of 2022 Challenge Series)
• CBA Contest (2021 Challenge Series)
• Pick-a-door Contest (2022 Challenge Series)
• Game Theory Contest (2022 Challenge Series)
• Tax Game Contest (2022 Challenge Series)
• Happy Contest (2022 Challenge Series)
• Even-to-Win (New Contest))
• Ice-Cream Game Contest (New Contest)
• Economics Quiz Contest (New Contest)
• Christmas Contest (New Contest)

Video

Below is a video describing the new contest series and the upcoming contests for 2023.

New ContestsThere are four new contest for this series. Below are brief descriptions of what these contests entail.

Christmas Contest 2022

The Christmas contest requires participants to choose a present for themselves, for the participant who entered immediately before them, and for the participant who entered immediately after them. Each participant will receive 3 presents. There are a choice of 12 presents. A possible value is assigned to each present. A probability that the present is worth its possible value is also stated.

This contest has two objectives. The first objective is to receive the highest value of presents (one from yourself and two from two other participants). The second objective is to give the highest value of presents (one to yourself and two to two other participants). These objectives are measured separately; thus, two participants can win Hive Power. The usual contest tie-breaker rules apply. If there is a tie, the participant who entered first wins. The contest post will provide more information and will explain the rules for both the first and last participants who enter.

Even-to-Win

The ‘Even to Win’ Game requires participants to select a certain number of boxes (e.g. 5 out of 9 boxes). Each box has been assigned points. The participant obtains the points if an even number of participants have selected that box. If only one participant selects the box, it awards no points. If two participants select it, it offers the points stated in the question. If three participants select the box, it awards no points. Some boxes have limits to the number of participants that can select them. For example, a box might have a limit of three participants. Once the third participant has selected the box, new participants can no longer select that box. They are limited to the boxes that have not yet reached their limit.

The objective of the game is to obtain the highest points from the boxes they have selected. If two participants obtain the same total number of points, the participant who entered first wins.

Ice-Cream Game

The ‘Ice Cream’ Game requires participants to select a beach and then a location on that beach to set-up an ice-cream stand. The stand attracts customers based on its proximity to them. The stand can only attract customers that do not need to pass another ice-cream stand (competitor) to reach it.

The objective of the game is to obtain the highest number of customers from the sale of all ice cream. If two participants achieve the same number of customers, the participant who entered first wins. More information will be released in the contest post.

Economics Quiz

The quiz contains 5 questions and 26 possible answers. This is a type of multiple choice quiz. Instead of 4 or 5 choices per questions, there 26 choices altogether. The answer for the question could be any of the 26 choices and they are presented in any particular order. The answer to Question 1 could be Q and the answer to Question 2 could be D.

The objective of the game is to answer the most questions correctly. If there is a tie for first place, the participant who entered first wins.

When will these contest be played?

The dates and order of each contest will not be revealed until each contest has been posted (except the Christmas Contest). Each contest will only be played once unless it is also part of the Challenge Series. Participants will have a better idea of which contests are to come as the year draws to an end.

Prizes

Instead of giving away Hive, I’ll be giving away Hive Power. The Hive will be powered up to the winners account directly. This is to promote investment in Hive. Cryptocurrency Bear Markets are a good time to accumulate Hive. The prices are low. Therefore, it is not worth selling. Instead, Hive Power can be used to earn more Hive. This can be sold in the next Bull Market or invested even longer until future cycles. Hive Power will earn more for the winners in the long-run. If given away as Hive, winners might be tempted to sell the Hive now.

Challenge Series

The Challenge Series could be considered as part of the Economics Contest Series. It is like a more intense tournament version of the Contest Series. The Challenge Series is most likely to be in the third quarter of 2023. Below are the challenges for the series. It will consist of the two Buying and Selling Games, the three announced new contests, and two more challenges to be announced next year.

• Buying and Selling Game (Original)
• Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Even-to-Win (New Contest)
• Ice-Cream Game Contest (New Contest)
• Economics Quiz Contest (New Contest)
• New Contest (to be determined)
• New Contest (to be determined)

All for now

This is all the information I have for now. More information will be provided in the contest posts themselves. I will post another video about the Challenge Series one month before it starts with more information.

More postsIf you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social MediaSpectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/numydmzv
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 33 and final results post for the Buying and Selling Game Series. A new economics series will begin in 2023. Next month’s post will explain this new series of contests.

This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model. The model generates the selling prices for the goods described in the contest post. For contest 33, the participants had a choice of six types of donuts, which were available on 5 different planets, this contest goes outer space sometimes. Watch the video to find out what our participants did and who won the contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all of these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If more than one participant makes the highest profit, the participant who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 10 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the Contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each type of donut on each planet.

Table 1: Selling prices of all donuts on each planet

Table 2 contains the responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @diebitch for winning Contest 33 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game and a prize of 30 Hive.

On Paczki, she bought 1234 jam filled donuts for $1.62 each. She paid a total of $1,999.08.

On Bear Claw, she sold the 1234 jam filled donuts for $1.944 each. She received a total revenue of $2398.90. Therefore, she made a profit of approximately $400 (2398.90 – 1999.08).

Highest possible profit

@diebitch also managed to obtain the highest possible profit for this contest. Therefore, wins an additional 10 Hive; thus, taking her winnings up to 40 Hive.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @crrdlx, @pana1, @emeka4, @fatherfaith, @pasiflora, @voidd, @seki1, @royalevidence, and @michael87 for participating. I look forward to seeing all of you in next year’s economics contest series and maybe in the Christmas challenge as well.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in a future Buying and Selling Game (mostly likely in the 2023 7-Week Economics Challenge Series), I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ (Business Version) Contest 32 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game is played.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined with an Excel Model, which uses triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions in the contest question. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods they have sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner will win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for kettles, percolators, and pod machines respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Kettles

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Percolators

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Pod Machines

Tables 1 and 2 contain responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit (Participants 1 to 5)

Table 2: Participant responses and profit (Participants 6 to 11)

Participants in red font have been disqualified for not buying goods in batches of 8 or for exceeding the contest budget. Out of the 11 participants, only 4 have valid entries.

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 32 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game (Business Version) and 30 Hive.

@fatherfaith purchased 8 kettles at $15 each, 24 percolators at $18 each, and 24 pod machines at $25 each. They were priced to sell at $20, $24.60, and $51 respectively. At those prices, all the kitchen appliances for making hot drinks that were bought were sold. A total revenue of $1,974.40 ($160 for kettles, $590.40 for percolators, and $1,224 for pod machines) was generated. The total cost for buying these appliances was $1,452 ($120 for kettles, $432 for percolators, $600 for pod machines, and $300 for daily overhead). @fatherfaith’s total profit was $522.40.

@fatherfaith was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. The estimator bought more pod machines, less percolators and no kettles. The estimator priced the percolators significantly higher and the pod machines slightly higher. The relatively low budget favoured a strategy of buying goods with inelastic demand while selling them at higher prices. The low budget at most only enabled a maximum of 42 (only pod machines) to 80 (only kettles) out of a demand that could have enabled as many as 800 (400 kettles, 200 percolators, and 200 pod machines) of all appliances to be sold if the budget had been larger.

@fatherfaith’s low prices ensured all the appliances were sold but was sufficiently high to make some profit. Pricing was clearly reactionary to responses made by other participants. Kettles and pod machines were priced the same as participants who entered earlier and the percolators were priced only $0.60 higher. A lack of relevant entries made this strategy very effective and almost guaranteed victory before the results were calculated in the model. Commendable use of game theory.

I would also like to thank @emeka4, @pana1, @crrdlx, @seki1, @royalevidence, @micheal87, @joshsticks28, @voidd, @adedayoolumide, and @maro1 for participating.

Contest Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one type of good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the final results post for the Economics 7 Week Challenge Series for 2022. This post contains the winners for the final challenge as well as the winner for the overall challenge series.

The final Challenge in the series is Challenge 7: Pick-a-door. This post contains a video of an Excel Model determining which doors have prizes behind them and the success each participant has in selecting the doors.

Winner of Challenge 7 determined in this video

What is the Pick-a-door challenge?

For the benefit of those who did not enter this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

In this challenge, participants were required to make decisions based on expected payoff and risk. Participants were presented with 12 doors. Behind each door there could be a prize (expressed in dollars). Each door had a possible prize worth a different amount. As the value increased the probability of the prize being behind the door decreased. For example, Door 3 had a 72% chance of a prize worth $40 and Door 7 had a 40% chance of a prize worth $88. If the prize is not there, the participant will receive a value of zero.

Opening a door cost $10, each participant was given a budget of $40. Therefore, each participant could open as many as 4 of the 12 doors. Participants were not compelled to use all of the budget. If a participant opened 2 or more doors that have zero value behind them, they are eliminated from the challenge. If not eliminated, the winner is the participant with the highest total value expressed in dollars (i.e. combined value of prizes minus cost of opening doors).

Responses to the challenge were made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge is equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 8 participants the prize will be 40 Hive (5 × 8)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. The winner receives 2/3 of the prize and second place receives 1/3 of the prize. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. The links to all the challenges can be found below.

• Challenge 1: Auction
• Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 3: Tax Game (New)
• Challenge 4: Game Theory
• Challenge 5: Make Me Happy
• Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version)
• Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Results of Challenge 7

Table 1 contains the participants and the doors they selected.

Table 1: Doors selected by participants

Table 2 contains the potential prizes behind each door, the probability that the prize will be there, and the actual prize based on the Excel Model.

Table 2: Prizes behind each door

Table 3 contains the prizes each participant won, total value of prizes, the criterion of no more than one door with a value of zero (eliminated participants totals are in red font), and the Challenge winner (highlighted in green).

Table 3: Challenge Winner

Out of the 23 participants who entered, 11 were eliminated for opening more than one door with a zero value. Of the remaining 12 participants, @joshstick28 obtained the highest total value of $258. Every door opened had a positive value. This included doors with high values such as 7 and 9. @joshsticks28 wins 40 Hive and 40 points. In second place is @khingstan who selected three doors with positive values and managed to accumulate a total value of $198. @khingstan wins 20 Hive and 20 points. In third place is @ksam who also selected three doors with positive values. The total of these values were less than @khingstan's total and amounted to $189. @ksam is awarded 10 points.

None of the participants managed to open the combination of doors that would have achieved the highest possible total. This combination would have been Doors 5, 7, 8, and 9. This would have accumulated a total prize worth $312. The participants still did very well. Selecting the optimal combination would have involved considerable luck.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This challenge relies very heavily on luck. Any of the doors could have prizes behind them. As more participants enter the results depend even more greatly on luck. Even so, a good strategy could increase your chances of winning. It helps if participants have a good idea of the number of participants entering and the choices they have made. Therefore, entering late offers an advantage in that aspect. For example, if only two participants have entered. Participant 1 has decided to open only Door 1 and Participant 2 to only open Door 12. At this point, Participant 1 has a 64% chance of winning, Participant 2 only has a 20% chance of winning and there is a 16% they will tie. Participant 3 could choose to open just Door 2, 3, 4, or 5 to have a better chance of winning than either Participant 1 or 2. If Participant 3 knows no other participant will enter, opening Door 2 is the best option. Participant 3 would have a 60% chance of winning, Participant 1 will only have a 16% of winning (very big drop), and Participant 2 would still have a 20% of winning. As more participants enter, the chances of winning from selecting high percentage low payout options decreases significantly. Low percentage high payout options may fall but by a lower percentage.

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion

We have the results from all 7 Challenges. Therefore, we can declare an overall challenge series winner. The table has been updated with the results from Challenge 7; see below.

Overall Series Score

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Pana1 | 75 | | 2 | Fatherfaith | 65 | | 3 | Adeyemijan | 60 | | 4 | Adedayoolumide | 50 | | 5 | Joshsticks28 | 45 | | 6 | Temileke | 30 | | 7 | Homesteadlt | 20 | | 8 | Khingstan | 20 | | 9 | Emeka4 | 10 | | 10 | Pasiflora | 10 | | 11 | Ksam | 10 | | 12 | Maro1 | 5 |

The overall winner of the 2022 Economics Challenge Series is @pana1. Congratulations on your consistently strong performance across several challenges. @pana1 came first in both versions of the Buying and Selling Game (Challenges 2 and 6 respectively) second place in Challenges 1 (Auction) and 5 (Make Me Happy).

Your prize is determined by the total number of participants across all seven challenges. Each participant adds 1 Hive to the prize until the prize is capped at 80 Hive. Across all seven challenges there were 100 participants. Therefore, @pana1 has won the maximum prize of 80 Hive.

Over the seven challenges 530 Hive has been given away (120 Hive was given away in Challenge 4 to 2 winners). It was this high because of the level of participation. It would not have been possible if so many people had not entered. A big thank you to all those who participated.

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the final week of the Economics 7 Week Challenge series for 2022. We begin this week with the results post for Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version). This post contains a video generating the results of the challenge using a Microsoft Excel Model.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge nor any of the monthly contests, here is a brief explanation of how the game is played.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns or cities in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns or cities are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town or city. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the highest profit after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive (e.g. if the challenge has 9 participants the prize will be 45 Hive (5 × 9)). The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 20 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the prize is below 60 Hive and the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Unfortunately, all of them are now closed. See links below.

• Challenge 1: Auction
• Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 3: Tax Game (New)
• Challenge 4: Game Theory
• Challenge 5: Make Me Happy
• Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version)
• Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Results of Challenge 6

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each dessert in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all desserts in each town or city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Three participants achieved the same highest profit of $15,191. They were @pana1, @pasiflora, and @maro1. The winner of challenge 6 is @pana1 for entering first out of the three. @pana1 wins 40 Hive (60 × 2/3) and 20 points. In second place is @pasiflora for entering second out of the three. @pasiflora wins 20 Hive (60 × 1/3) and 10 points. In third place is @maro1 who is awarded 5 points.

@pana1 won by buying 4687 pancakes for $3.20 each in Cream Falls for a total of $14,998.40. Then went on to sell these pancakes at Syrup Hill for $6.441 each; thus, earning a revenue of $30,188.97. Therefore, made a profit of $15,191 ($30,188.97 – $14,998.40).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 6000 Mousse from Syrup Hill at $2.50 each and then selling them at Icing Town for $5.192 (as generated by the model) each. This would have generated a profit of $16,152.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of dessert.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @crrdlx, @fatherfaith, @micheal87, @adeyemijan, @emeka4, @temileke, @alexkidding, @seki1, @notak, @homesteadlt, @axel-mccornstack, @adedayoolumide, and @adeyemi12 for participating.

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion

After six challenges and with just one challenge left to announce, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Pana1 | 75 | | 2 | Fatherfaith | 65 | | 3 | Adeyemijan | 60 | | 4 | Adedayoolumide | 50 | | 5 | Temileke | 30 | | 6 | Homesteadlt | 20 | | 7 | Emeka4 | 10 | | 8 | Pasiflora | 10 | | 9 | Joshsticks28 | 5 | | 10 | Maro1 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the Buying and Selling Game monthly contest series, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for Challenge 5: Make Me Happy. This post contains a video of an Excel Model. This model has been used to generate the utility of activities for the 5 different characters described in the questions. The model also calculates the utility of each character selected by participants based on the amount of time allocated to activities.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Make Me Happy Challenge?

The Make Me Happy Challenge focuses on maximising the utility of different characters who have different preferences. Participants can choose between 5 different characters. Participants need to maximise the utility of their character using 168 hours in a week. This involves earning sufficient money to pay for basic needs as well as pay for activities that yield their character utility. Characters can only earn money from working. Working itself yields at least some utility but it is generally lower than most other activities. Characters do not start the week with any money and any remaining money yields no utility. The winner of the challenge will be the participant who provides the most utility for their character while not exceeding the characters disposable income.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 30 points, second place 20 points, and third place 10 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Unfortunately, all of them are now closed. See links below.

• Challenge 1: Auction
• Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 3: Tax Game (New)
• Challenge 4: Game Theory
• Challenge 5: Make Me Happy
• Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version)
• Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Results of Challenge 5

Tables 1 and 2 contains the allocation of time for each activity by all participants for this challenge.

Table 1: Allocation of time for each activity (Participants 1 to 7)

Table 2: Allocation of time for each activity (Participants 8 to 14)

Note: Participants highlighted in red have been eliminated for not allocating sufficient time for sleeping (42 hours) or for not keeping within the 168 hours allocated for activities.

Table 3 contains the utility for each activity for all 5 characters.

Table 3: Utility of Activities for each Characters

Table 4 contains the utility generated by each participant’s character

Table 4: Utility generated by each Participant's Characters

| Participants | Utility | | --- | --- | | adedayoolumide | 1,302 | | homesteadlt | 941 | | crrdlx | 804 | | adeyemi12 | 1,054 | | pana1 | 1,350 | | adeyemijan | 1,346 | | fatherfaith | 1,352 |

This challenge was very close. @fatherfaith won by just 2 Utils after allocating time for his character Hivelorian. He wins 60 Hive and 30 points. In second place is @pana1 who is awarded 20 points. In third place is @adeyemijan who is awarded 10 points.

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion

After five challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

| Position | Participants | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Fatherfaith | 65 | | 2 | Adeyemijan | 60 | | 3 | Pana1 | 55 | | 4 | Adedayoolumide | 50 | | 5 | Temileke | 30 | | 6 | Homesteadlt | 20 | | 7 | Emeka4 | 10 | | 8 | Joshsticks28 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This challenge involved a careful balancing act between earning income, choosing high utility activities, and low cost activities. Different characters required different approaches. For example, Hillary obtains utility from many different activities (e.g. eating out, going to pub, social media, playing sport, and playing video games). Therefore, spreading time more evenly across these many activities is likely to produce higher utility for her. For a character like Dennis, time would be better off concentrated on just a few activities such as just social media and video games. These activities are inexpensive. Therefore, Dennis only needs to work to cover his basic expenditure. However, working extra hours is fine as he obtains relatively more utility from work. Someone like Joey should only be allocated the minimum number of hours to cover his costs as work offers him very little utility.

Most of the participants understood the concepts of maximising utility by focusing on the activities that provided the highest chances of obtaining high utility. Well done participants.

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Week 5 of the Challenge series 2022. We begin this week with the results post for Challenge 3: Tax Game. This post contains a video of an Excel Model, which generates the parameters that determine the impact tax has on income and social welfare, the income generated by each participant, the social welfare cost of each participant, and the participant who generated the highest income minus social costs.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Tax Game Challenge?

For this challenge participants are required to set the tax rate for a very small country. Tax has been simplified to just a percentage of overall income (i.e. no distinction between different taxes such as income tax, corporate tax, GST, etc.). The current tax rate and national income are provided in the question. The participants are required to set the tax rate yearly for the next 3 years (i.e. rate in Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3). They can choose any tax rate they please (anywhere between 0% and 100%). Changing the tax rate will have both benefits and costs. For example, lowering the tax rate will raise income but, if tax revenue falls as a result of a lower tax rate, there could be a social cost of reduced funding of services provided by the Government. However, social costs will be reduced in the following year as it is assumed the market will partially adjust to lower or higher Government spending.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)) until a value of 60 Hive is reached. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3. The first 12 entries will be given upvotes. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 30 points, second place 20 points, and third place 10 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Five of them are now closed. One is still running. One more will be posted in the upcoming days. See links below.

Closed * Challenge 1: Auction * Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version) * Challenge 3: Tax Game (New) * Challenge 4: Game Theory * Challenge 5: Make Me Happy

Open (Until 11/09/2022) * Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version)

Upcoming * Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Results of Challenge 3

Table 1 contains the participants and the tax rates they proposed for the challenge.

Table 1: Participants and their proposed tax rates

The model generated three key parameters for determining income’s responsiveness to tax rate, the social cost of reducing funding for goods and services previously funded by Government (tax revenue reduction only), and the extent the market can compensate from reduced Government spending. Table 2 contains the parameters generated in the model.

Table 2: Model Generated Parameter Values

| Parameter | Value | | --- | --- | | Income Sensitivity | 1.5 | | Welfare Recovery | 1.63 | | Welfare Penalty | 4.01 |

Note: these parameters have very little meaning without the formulae they are applied to. Refer back to the original question for more context.

The parameters were applied to the formulae stated in the question to determine income and social costs for each participant. Tables 3, 4, and 5 contain the income and social costs for each participant for each year. Table 5 also contains the totals and the winner of the challenge.

Table 3: Income and Social Costs Year 1

Table 4: Income and Social Costs Year 2

Table 5: Income and Social Costs Year 3, totals and challenge winner

Congratulations to @temileke for winning the Tax Game Challenge with an income net social cost of $634,395,688. @temileke wins 40 Hive for this challenge (60 × 2/3) and 30 points. @homesteadlt wins 20 Hive (60× 2/3) and 20 points for second place and @adedayoolumide is awarded 10 points for third place.

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion

After three challenge, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Pana1 | 35 | | Fatherfaith | 35 | | Temileke | 30 | | Homesteadlt | 20 | | Emeka4 | 10 | | Adedayoolumide | 10 | | Joshsticks28 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

This is a difficult challenge to determine the exact tax rates to use. Participants could enter the formulae given into a spreadsheet to gauge what values give better results. This would be a time consuming exercise and it is possible something could go wrong entering the formulae, variables and parameters. Studying the figures provided in the question is an easier alternative approach.

The current tax rate of 40% is high and is stunting economic activity. Lowering the tax rate is the first logical approach. Lowering straight to a more desirable level (e.g. 20%+) will create an immediate social cost as tax revenue would fall quite sharply. Lowering tax revenue more gradually would be a better strategy. Several participants adopted such a strategy. @temileke judged the optimal tax rate best out of the participants who chose to lower it. If the parameters had been different, a lower or higher tax rate could have offered better results. This is a game that involves skill but also requires some luck.

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If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/gxcjhowb
Hi Everyone,

I have always had a fascination with dinosaurs. I still remember visiting Blackgang Chine on the Isle of White when I was very young (younger than 6 years). They had these huge model dinosaurs. As I was so young they appeared even bigger. It was not just the size that amazed me, it was their amazing appearance. The three horns and neck frill of the Triceratops, the huge plates of the Stegosaurus, the long neck and tail of the Brontosaurus (Pre-1990 terminology, i.e. Apatosaurus with Camarasaurus head), and the massive head and tiny arms of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Photographs from a more recent visit to Blackgang Chine

One of my favourite toys when I was young was a little Triceratops that I got from the Blackgang Chine gift shop, see photograph below. I still have this toy even today and I have added a few more to it,

Triceratops Toy

My interest in dinosaurs was also fuelled by dinosaur films. I cannot remember much about most of them but several of them involved fight scenes between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Triceratops or a giant gorilla (i.e. King Kong). The animation was really bad by today’s standards but that was the best we had back then. They looked like puppets and the Tyrannosaurus Rex stood very vertical like a person. In 1993, the Jurassic Park film made a huge leap in dinosaur animation. They presented dinosaurs in a way never done before. They looked incredibly real and so different from the puppets from earlier films. The film introduced me to many different types of dinosaurs, which I had never heard of before such as the Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus.

I found the television series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ amazing as well. The animation was also fantastic. It was different from the Jurassic Park films as it was a documentary series covering a few selected dinosaurs. I enjoyed Episode 3: Cruel Sea, which featured the sea dinosaur Liopleurodon. In this the series it was massive. Later, they revised the size of the dinosaur down by quite a bit.

The Jurassic Park movie franchise kept expanding. In 2022, they added another film (sixth in the series so far) titled ‘Jurassic World Dominion’. The dinosaurs are still impressive even if the storyline has lost some of its appeal. The new dinosaurs such as the Therizinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus, and Quetzalcoatlus were very impressive. It was also great how the film included feathered dinosaurs and explained it by using complete genomes instead of filling in the gaps with frog DNA as explained in the original film.

Jurassic Games

I have played several Jurassic Park/World video games over the years. I believe the first one I played was Trespasser, which was linked to Jurassic Park 2 (The Lost World). This was a first person game. It required the player to escape Site B (the island where they raise the dinosaurs before they transfer them to Jurassic Park). It was a fun game and the graphics were good for a late 90s game. The second game I played was Jurassic Park Operation Genesis (2003). This game involved building your own Jurassic Park while completing several challenges. It was a lot of fun and quite similar to the Zoo Tycoon games of that time. This game had a lot in common with the current Jurassic World Evolution series of games but on a smaller scale.

For a long time, I did not see any Jurassic Park/World video games. It was not until 2018 that I played one again; that was Jurassic World Evolution. This game felt like the upgraded version of Operation Genesis. It had more and better looking dinosaurs, which was expected from a game made 15 years later. The game was a lot of fun but it was a bit rigid in terms of unlocking islands and required a particular order for completing missions and tasks. Sandbox mode (free to do as you like mode) only became available after all the mission islands were completed; this could frustrate some people. I did not mind because I enjoyed completing most aspects of the game.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 I got Jurassic World Evolution 2 as a Christmas present from my sister (@vegoutt-travel). I was delighted as I have enjoyed the previous games, I am a big fan of the Jurassic Park/World movie series, and I am a dino nerd in general. I did not play the game immediately as I was still playing Madden 22. After I had my fill of that game (late February/early March), I moved on to Jurassic World Evolution 2. I have been playing it ever since. I have completed almost everything. This involves:

• All the campaigns for both the original game and the Dominion expansion pack.
• Chaos Theory missions for all six films.
• The five original challenges on medium and Jurassic (hardest in game) levels
• Unlocking everything (includes all dinosaurs, genetic modifications, movie characters, buildings from all eras, dig sites, park maps, and plants).
• All PlayStation trophies (includes rare Platinum trophy).

The recent update has added another five more challenges, I have not competed them yet. I expect to come back to them at a later date. There are a few other expansion packs I have not bought but I only really wanted the Dominion expansion pack. I have completed enough of the game to build any park with any of the dinosaurs and buildings. This is the biggest reward for completing the game.

My first attempt was with the BioSyn map and buildings from the Dominion expansion pack. It was good practice but I could not build the park I really wanted. My second attempt was with the Sierra Nevada map from the Dominion expansion pack and the buildings from Jurassic World. This map is cold and snowy and a good size and shape to design any style of park I wanted. Below are the maps of the completed park.

Map of Jurassic World Frozen Adventure (Dinosaur Gif Version)

Map of Jurassic World Frozen Adventure (Large)

Jurassic World Frozen Adventure The best way for me to show you the game and the frozen adventure I created using the game’s sandbox mode is through video.

• The video explores the basics of the game (Beginning)
• Introducing the Frozen Adventure (17:00)
• The park layout section by section (29:00)
• Monorail ride (1:00:00
• Parts of the round the World Park Tour Ride (1:10:15)
• Peek into the fight arena (1:13:12)
• Peek into the aviaries and view of the flying dinosaurs (1:15:25)
• Parts of the Gyrosphere rides (1:16:50)
• Helicopter ride of the whole park (1:19:25)
• Stars of the show (1:27:06)

Jurassic World Frozen Adventure (Video) I apologise for my awful pronunciation of the names of some of these amazing dinosaurs.

I hope you enjoyed the video. If you find the game interesting, you might as well give it a go. It is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox, and PC. It is more affordable now as it was released in late 2021.

Meet some of the Dinosaurs from Jurassic World Evolution 2

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/qphctaxc
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Week 4 of the Challenge series 2022. We begin this week with the results post for Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version). This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined using an Excel Model using triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)) until a value of 60 Hive is reached. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3. The first 12 entries will be given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 20 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Four of them are now closed. One is still running. Two more will be posted in the upcoming weeks. See links below.

Closed * Challenge 1: Auction * Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version) * Challenge 3: Tax Game (New) * Challenge 4: Game Theory

Open (Until 04/09/2022) * Challenge 5: Make Me Happy

Upcoming * Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version) * Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Results of the Challenge

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for shampoo, body wash, and bubble bath respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Shampoo

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Body Wash

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Bubble Bath

Table 1 contains responses, quantities sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @pana1 for winning Challenge 2 with a profit of $880. @pana1 wins 30 Hive for this challenge (2/ 3 × 5 × 9) and 20 points. @emeka4 wins 15 Hive (2/ 3 × 5 × 9) and 10 points for second place and @fathfaith is awarded 5 points for third place. @crrdlx's profits were not considered as costs went over the $600 budget.

@pana1 bought 70 bottles of shampoo at $1.50 per a bottle, 100 bottles of body wash at $1.20 per a bottle, and 90 bottles of bubble bath at $2.50 per a bottle. @pana1 priced them to sell at $4, $3, and $12 respectively. At those prices, all bottles of shampoo and body wash were sold and 15 bottles of bubble bath remained unsold. This generated a total revenue of $1480 ($280 for bottles of shampoo, $300 for bottles of body wash, and $900 for bottles of bubble bath). The total cost of buying these bath products was $600 ($105 for bottles of shampoo, $120 for bottles of body wash, $225 for bottles of bubble bath, and $150 daily overhead). @pana1's total profit was $880.

I would also like to thank @crrdlx, @joshsticks28, @michael87, @adedayoolumide, @adeyemijan and @adeyemi12 for participating.

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion After two challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Pana1 | 35 | | Fatherfaith | 35 | | Emeka4 | 10 | | Joshsticks28 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one type of good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/seksygir
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Week 3 of the Challenge series 2022. We begin this week with the results post for Challenge 1: Auction. This post contains a video of an Excel Model, which generates the values of all 12 items that were auctioned in the challenge, the winners of each auctioned item, and the participant who made the highest profit from the auction.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Auction Challenge?

The auction challenge allows participants to bid on up to 4 of 12 items in an auction. The participant who bids the highest wins the value of the auctioned item. However, the values of the auctioned items are not stated in the question. Instead, a range of values are stated. These values are generated using the Excel Model shown in the video in this post. Participants should aim to win the auctioned items without bidding over their values. This will produce a profit. Profit is calculated by subtracting the winning bid from the value of the item. The participant with the highest profit is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 30 points, second place 15 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Three of them are now closed. One is still running. Three more will be posted in the upcoming weeks. See links below.

Closed * Challenge 1: Auction * Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version) * Challenge 3: Tax Game (New)

Open (Until 28/08/2022) * Challenge 4: Game Theory

Upcoming * Challenge 5: Make Me Happy * Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version) * Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Results of Challenge 1

Table 1 contains the bids made by all participants and the winners of each auctioned item.

Table 1: Bids and winners of auctions

Of the 9 participants who entered, 5 participants won at least one auctioned item. @fatherfaith won 4 items, @pana1 won 4, @adeyemi won 2, and @michael47 and @joshsticks28 won 1 item each. Winning more items does not necessarily equate to obtaining the highest profit. The profit margin on each item won is critical in determining the overall winner.

Table 2 contains the values of each item (generated by the model) and the profit each participant made on their winning bids. Table 3 contains the overall profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Value of items and profit made from each item

Table 3: Overall Profit made by Participants

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning the Auction Challenge with a profit of 339. @fatherfaith made profits on three of the four items won. @fatherfaith wins 45 Hive for this challenge (5 × 9) and 30 points. @pana1 is awarded 15 points for second place and @joshsticks28 is awarded 5 points for third place.

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion After just one challenge, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Fatherfaith | 30 | | Pana1 | 15 | | Joshsticks28 | 5 |

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

@fatherfaith played the game very well. He used two important strategies that helped him win this game. He bid very late (final hour of the challenge). This greatly reduced the chances that someone would outbid him to win the items he bid on. He bid on items where the highest bids were below the expected value (e.g. Item 12 had an expected value of 195 (40+340)/2 and his bid was only 81). Therefore, he maximised his chances of obtaining a profit with his bids. He was also very fortunate that so many items had bids well below their expected values. If these options were not available, bidding would have been much more difficult. Under these circumstances, the best approach would most likely have been to bid on high risk and high payoff items such as Item 7.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/jncsxcse
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 31 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each type of electric cleaning equipment for each town described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same amount of money, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each type of electric cleaning equipment in each town.

Table 1: Selling prices of all electric cleaning equipment in each town

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 31 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game and a prize of 30 Hive.

In Pristine Town, he bought 459 steam cleaners for $87 each. He paid a total of $39,933.

In Spotlessville, he sold the 459 steam cleaners for $147.81 each. He received a total revenue of $67,845 Therefore, he made a profit of $27,912(67,845 – 39,933).

Highest possible profit

Unfortunately, @fatherfaith did not win the bonus 5 Hive for highest profit possible for this game. The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 400 vacuum cleaners from Pristine Town at $100 each and then selling them at Shine Town for $188.80 each (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $35,520.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of electric cleaning equipment.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @crrdlx, @pana1, @emeka4, @adedayoolumide, @pasiflora, @luizeba, @shubhwaj, and @michael87 for participating.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the next contest, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/bvkhqfrs
Hi Everyone,

In July 2021, I brought back the Economics 7-week Challenge Series (previously called the Economics 6-week Challenge Series in 2018). In previous years, a combination of lack of Hive and Hive Power, and the brutal altcoin Bear Market prevented me from running the Challenge Series. Well, the Bear Market appears to be back but less brutal for Hive than it was for Steem in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (Hive is worth well above 10 cents). Even if Hive dips lower, I am committed to making the Challenge Series an annual event. I have no plans to significantly reduce my Hive Power in the next few years. Therefore, it should remain easy to fund.

Video The video below explains the challenge series and provides a brief run-through of all 7 challenges.

When will the challenge series be held?

This year’s challenge series will begin in August (exact date still to be determined). Over a period of seven weeks there will be seven challenges. In weeks one and two, there will be two challenges each week (i.e. Challenges 1 to 4). In weeks three, four, and five, there will be one new challenge and one results post each week (i.e. Challenges 5 to 7 and results for Challenges 1 to 3). In weeks six and seven, there will be two results post each week (i.e. results for Challenges 4 to 7). At the end of the seven weeks, the overall winner will be announced.

Prizes

For my Buying and Selling Games, the prize has been consistently 30 Hive. For the challenges, the prize will depend on participation. As the number of participants increase, so does the value of the prize (see GIF above). For each new participant, the prize for the challenge will increase by 5 Hive. This will occur until the prize reaches a maximum of 60 Hive for the challenge. For example, if there are 5 participants, the prize will be 25 Hive (5 × 5). If there are 10 participants, the prize will be 50 Hive (10 × 5). If there are 12 or more participants, the prize will be 60 Hive. For some challenges, the prize will be awarded to just the winner and for other challenges it will be awarded as 2/3 to the winner and 1/3 to second place.

In addition to prize money, points will be awarded to the top performers of each challenges. The participant with the most points at the end of the Challenge Series will be the overall winner. The prize for the overall winner will depend on total participation across all 7 challenges. For each participant, the prize will increase by 1 Hive. This will occur until the prize reaches a maximum of 80 Hive. For example, if challenges 1 to 7 have 8, 7, 8, 6, 12, 10, and 14 participants respectively, the prize for the overall winner will be 65 Hive (8+7+8+6+12+10+14=62). If the participation rate is high, as much as 500 Hive (7 × 60 + 80 = 500) will be given away.

What are the challenges?

The focus of this challenge series will be economics. It will follow a very similar format to last year’s challenge series. I strongly recommend that you read last year’s description post (Spectrumecons Seven-Week Challenge (Coming Soon)). Five of the seven challenges from last year’s challenge series will be included in this year’s challenge series. These challenges are as follows (clink links to view last year’s challenges):

• Buying and Selling Game (Original Version)
• Buying and Selling Game(Business Version)
• Auction (Mystery Items)
• Game Theory Challenge (Most or Least)
• Make me Happy

There will be two new challenges. These challenges are the ‘Tax Game’ and ‘Pick-a-door’. These challenges are briefly described in the following two sections.

Tax Game

The participant will be required to set the tax rate for a very small country. Tax has been simplified to just a percentage of overall income (i.e. no distinction between different taxes such as income tax, corporate tax, GST, etc.). The current tax rate and national income will be provided in the question. The participants will be required to set the tax rate yearly for the next 3 years (i.e. rate in year 1, year 2, and year 3). They can choose any tax rate they please. Changing the tax rate will have both benefits and costs. For example, lowering the tax rate will raise income but, if tax revenue falls as a result of a lower tax rate, there could be a social cost of reduced funding of services provided by the Government. The extent of the increase in income and social cost will be determined in a Microsoft Excel model. However, participants will be provided a range of possible values. Social costs and benefits will be halved in the following year as it is assumed the market will partially adjust to lower or higher Government spending.

The winner of the challenge will be determined by the sum of national income for the 3 years plus or minus changes in social costs. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3 of the prize.

Pick-a-door

The challenge series is focused on economics. An important aspect of economics is dealing with the unknown. We do not how people will respond to changes. We can only predict behavioural changes and the extent of these changes based on the information we have. In this challenge, participants will need to make decisions based on expected payoff and risk. Participants will be presented with 12 doors. Behind each door there could be a prize (expressed as dollar value). Each door will have a possible prize worth a different dollar value. As the dollar value increases the probability of the prize being behind the door decreases. For example, for Door 3, there could be a 50% chance of a prize worth $50 and for Door 7, there could be a 25% chance of a prize worth $120. If the prize is not there, the participant will receive a value of zero.

To open a door costs $10, each participant will be given a budget of $40. Therefore, each participant could open as many as 4 of the 12 doors; however, they are not compelled to use all of the budget. The winner will be the participant with the highest dollar value at the end (i.e. combined value of budget not spent and prize values). However, if a participant opens 2 or more doors that have zero value behind them, they will be disqualified from the contest. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3 of the prize.

All for Now

That is all the information I have for now. I will include a comment in this post one week before the challenge series begins and I will provide information in the Actifit Report and Update one week before the challenge series starts. To avoid missing out, return to my Hive page frequently.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/yuxertmx
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ (Business Version) Contest 30 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game is played.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined with an Excel Model, which uses triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions in the contest question. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods they have sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner will win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for formal shoes, running shoes, and indoor shoes respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Formal Shoes

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Running Shoes

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Indoor Shoes

Table 1 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 30 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game (Business Version) and 30 Hive. @emeka4 achieved a higher profit but exceeded the allocated budget of $5,000.

@fatherfaith purchased 30 formal shoes at $80 per a pair, 35 running shoes at $60 per a pair, and 10 indoor shoes at $30 per a pair. They were priced to sell at $145, $125, and $60 respectively. At those prices, all the shoes that were bought were sold. A total revenue of $9,325 ($4,350 for formal shoes, $4,375 for running shoes, and $600 for indoor shoes) was generated. The total cost for buying these shoes was $5,000 ($2,400 for formal shoes, $2,100 for running shoes, $300 for indoor shoes, and $200 for daily overhead). @fatherfaith’s total profit was $4,325.

@fatherfaith was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. The estimator bought more indoor shoes and fewer running shoes. However, the high profits were achieved through selling low quantities of formal and running shoes. This enabled them to be sold at a higher price; high diminishing marginal utility meant these shoes had a relatively more inelastic demand than indoor shoes. Buying more formal and running shoes would have forced the selling price down and lowered profits. The purpose of buying the indoor shoes was to use up the remainder of the budget while continuing to make a small profit. Lower diminishing marginal utility meant the indoor shoes had a relatively more elastic demand than the other shoes; therefore, higher quantities should be sold to increase profit. The difference in elasticity can be seen in Figures 1, 2, and 3 (i.e. steeper gradient more inelastic)

I would also like to thank @emeka4, @pana1, @crrdlx, and @veektur21 for participating.

Contest Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one type of good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/uqqemkbn
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 29 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each clock for each town and city described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same amount of money, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each clock in each town and city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all clocks in each town and city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 29 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game and a prize of 30 Hive.

In Pendulum, he bought 941 mantel clocks for $34 each. He paid a total of $31,994.

In Buzz City, he sold the 941 mantel clocks for $57.86 each. He received a total revenue of $54,446 Therefore, he made a profit of $22,452 (54,446 – 31,994).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 3,200 alarm clocks from Buzz City at $10 each and then selling them at Pendulum for $19.02 each (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $28,864.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of clock.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @crrdlx, @pana1, @emeka4, @adedayoolumide, @adie44, and @jersteemit for participating.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the next contest, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/qwezbvxn
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ (Business Version) Contest 28 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined with an Excel Model, which uses triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions in the contest question. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods they have sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner will win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Source for pie images: iStock

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for apple pies, blueberry pies, and pecan pies respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Apple Pies

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Blueberry Pies

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Pecan Pies

Table 1 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 28 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game (Business Version) and 30 Hive. @emeka4 achieved a higher profit but exceeded the allocated budget of $250.

@fatherfaith purchased 15 apple pies at $1.50 per a pie, 35 blueberry pies at $2.50 per a pie, and 30 pecan pies at $3.00 per a pie. They were priced to sell at $11, $21, and $21.50 respectively. At those prices, all the pies that were made were sold. A total revenue of $1,545 ($165 for apple pies, $735 for blueberry pies, and $645 for pecan pies) was generated. The total cost for making these pies was $250 ($22.50 for apple pies, $87.5 for blueberry pies, $90 for pecan pies, and $50 for daily overhead). @fatherfaith’s total profit was $1,295.

@fatherfaith was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator but came close. The estimator focused more on apple pies than on blueberry pies but this would have made very little difference to the profit. The main reason the estimator achieved a higher profit was because it charged higher prices for all the pies. @fatherfaith used a risk averse strategy of charging lower prices. This ensured all the pies were sold. Therefore, it should be considered a strong strategy.

I would also like to thank @emeka4, @adie44, @goldigolds, @crrdlx, @mayorbee, @veektur21, and @adedayoolumide for participating.

Contest Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one type of good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ozgpsxga
Hi Everyone,

On Saturday, my sister (@vegoutt-travel) and I presented at the Irish Vegan Festival in Belfast. The event is normally held annually but has not been held over the past 2 years because of Covid-19 restrictions.

I was unaware of this event until my sister, who had been invited to present and prepare food, told me about it. Initially, she was given 30 minutes to give a talk about animal rescue and make vegan protein balls. However, as there was a shortage of speakers, my sister was given an hour for her talk and cooking demonstration (vegan protein balls). Therefore, she asked me if I would like to talk as well. We have spoken together several times at events; these include the Vegoutt launch and Sea Shepherd Stand Fast Festival. I was happy to contribute in some way.

Picking a Topic

In my previous presentations, I discussed the relationship between economics and veganism. Economics can be applied to how we treat animals. In this talk, I focused less on veganism and more on meat consumption. Veganism involves a significant lifestyle change and not just a change in diet. Veganism involves not consuming any animal products. This includes:

• Food such as meat, dairy, eggs, and honey.
• Entertainment that involves animal abuse such as circuses with animals and sport events (e.g. horseracing and greyhound racing).
• Products that have been tested on animals such as some skin care products and medications.
• Clothing made from animal products such as leather, fur and feathers or if the production of the clothing has involved some form of animal cruelty.
• Pets that have been reared in cruel environments such as puppy or kitten farms.

Not eating meat or consuming less meat covers a much broader group of people. This group would include vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and flexitarians. I wanted a topic that had a broader reach, as vegan events are attended by more than just vegans.

In November 2021, I wrote a post 'Do the reasons for reducing meat consumption matter?'. This topic felt perfect for the event and I have yet to make a video about it. All of my statistics were recent so they did not need updating, which was useful considering I only had a week to prepare.

Content of Video

The presentation was reasonably short as I only had about a 10 to 15 minute window to fill. My previous post contained about 30 diagrams, tables, and pictures. A full presentation would have taken about 25 to 30 minutes. Therefore, I moved through the slides quickly and skipped a few areas that I discussed in the original post (I strongly recommend that you read the original post for information to support the presentation).

I began the video by assessing if we are reducing our meat consumption. This assessment considered:

• Google searches relating to veganism, plant-based diet, and semi-vegetarianism.
• Changes in consumption of plant-based foods.
• Increase in the number of vegetarian and vegan restaurants.
• Global meat consumption.
• Meat consumption per capita in various countries.

Next, I focused on the reasons people give for reducing meat consumption. The video contains the results of several different surveys from mostly the USA and the UK. The most common responses from these surveys are as follows:

• Animals welfare
• Health
• Environment
• Food safety
• Religion
• Taste
• Allergies

Health topped the reasons given for surveys that included a broad group of people such as vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and flexitarians. For surveys that focused on just vegans, animal welfare was the number one reason; however, health was the second reason given.

Finally, I discussed the relationship between reasons for becoming vegan or vegetarian and commitment to remaining vegan or vegetarian. I focused on two surveys/studies. The EPIC-Oxford Study indicated a very high proportion of vegans and vegetarians remain so in the long-run (over 20 years). The Faunalytics Study indicated that very few vegans and vegetarians maintained the diet/lifestyle beyond a year. The differences in results are likely because of respondent’s different reasons for becoming vegan or vegetarian. The EPIC-Oxford Study was conducted over a 20-year period (1990s to 2010s). The main reason for these respondents was animal welfare. The Faunalytics Study was conducted in 2014 and 2015. This study found that most of the respondents who returned to eating meat had stopped eating meat for health reasons. Health reasons are drawing people away from meat but they are less compelling reasons than animal welfare.

References from Video

1. Google Trends Plant Based Diet
2. Google Trends Veganism
3. Google Trends Semi-vegetarianism
4. Popularity of veganism sourced from Chef’s Pencil cited by The New Daily
5. Growth in Plant-based Foods sourced from Supermarket News
6. Growth in Vegan and Vegetarian restaurants sourced from Happy Cow
7. Americans reducing meat consumption sourced from Statista
8. Global meat consumption sourced from Statista
9. Per capita red meat consumption USA sourced from Statista
10. Per capita poultry, pork, and beef consumption USA sourced from Our World in Data
11. Per capita poultry, pork, and beef consumption EU sourced from Our World in Data
12. Countries with the highest per capita meat consumption sourced from Statista
13. Australia per capita consumption of beef and veal sourced from Statista
14. Countries with the highest per capita meat consumption in 2017 plus breakdown sourced from Our World in Data
15. Diets of potential plant-based customers sourced from Plant Based Foods Association
16. Main reason for becoming vegan sourced from Vomad
17. Main reason for becoming vegan (UK only) sourced from Statista
18. EPIC-Oxford Study sourced from Plant Based News
19. Faunalytics Study
20. Reasons Americans have given for reducing meat consumption sourced from Statista
21. Reasons Americans have given for reducing meat consumption sourced from White Hutchinson
22. Reason for purchasing plant-based foods in the USA sourced from Plant Based Foods Association
23. Reasons UK residents have given for reducing meat consumption sourced from Eating Better
24. Consumers of both plant-based and animal products sourced from Plant Based Foods Association
25. Plant-based preferences according to generation sourced from Impossible Foods
26. Projected global sales of meat between 2025 and 2040 sourced from Statista
27. Per capita fruit and vegetable consumption in the USA sourced from Statista
28. Vegetarian or vegan based on political belief (USA) sourced from Gallup cited by Psychology Today
29. US Liberal vs. Conservative support for meat consumption sourced from Forbes

Thanks for Watching. My sisters videos will be available soon.**---

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain**

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/yslajxar
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 27 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each work tool for each town described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same amount of money, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each work tool in each town.

Table 1: Selling prices of all work tools in each town

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 27 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game and a prize of 30 Hive.

In Screwtop, he bought 1000 mallets for $8 each. He paid a total of $8,000.

In Shedsville, he sold the 1000 mallets for $15.23 each. He received a total revenue of $15,230 Therefore, he made a profit of $7,230 (15,230 – 8,000).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 533 hacksaws from Nailem at $15 each and then selling them at Shedsville for $31.02 each (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $8,539.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of work tool.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @charlotte01, @pana1, @emeka4, @adedayoolumide, @veektur21, @lordtimoty, and @diebitch for participating.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the next contest, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/wmxuessl
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ (Business Version) Contest 26 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined with an Excel Model, which uses triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions in the contest question. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods they have sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner may win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for golf balls, footballs, and tennis balls respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Golf Balls

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Footballs

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Tennis Balls

Table 1 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @adeyemijan for winning Contest 26 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game (Business Version).

@adeyemijan purchased 220 golf balls at $0.80 per a ball, 35 footballs at $8.00 per a ball, and 30 tennis balls at $1.00 per a ball. They were priced to sell at $1.18, $12.50, and $1.30 respectively. At those prices, all the balls that were purchased were sold. A total revenue of $736.10 ($259.60 for golf balls, $437.50 for footballs, and $39 for tennis balls) was generated. The total cost for purchasing these balls was $586 ($176 for golf balls, $280 for footballs, $30 for tennis balls, and $100 for daily overhead). @adeyemijan’s total profit was $150.10.

@adeyemijan was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. The estimator focused less heavily on golf balls than @adeyemijan. This was done to enable a higher selling price for golf balls (i.e. demand was more inelastic at the lower quantity) while being able to buy more of the other types of balls (even at slightly higher quantities, the demand for these balls was still relatively inelastic). @adeyemijan still made the correct decision to focus more on golf balls considering diminishing marginal utility for them was considerably less than the other balls. Pricing was reasonably good as well and enabled all balls to be sold. However, slightly higher prices for both footballs and tennis balls would have reaped a higher profit.

I would also like to thank @emeka4, @btcsam, @fatherfaith, @pana1, @charlotte01, @veektur21, and @adedayoolumide for participating.

Contest Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/iasemumx
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 25 results post (first of the year). This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each non-motorised vehicle for each town and city described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant that has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same amount of money, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each non-motorised vehicle in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all non-motorised vehicles in each town and city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @fatherfaith for winning Contest 25 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game and a prize of 30 Hive.

In BMX City, he bought 122 bicycles for $180 each. He paid a total of $21,960.

In Lanesville, he sold the 122 bicycles for $256.77 each. He received a total revenue of $31,326. Therefore, he made a profit of $9,366 (31,326 - 21,960).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 104 tricycles from BMX City at $210 each and then selling them at Ramp Town for $405.97 each (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $20,381.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of non-motorised vehicle.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @shikika, @doctorcrypto, @emeka4, @adedayoolumide, and @jersteemit for participating.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the next contest, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/vsbplkba
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Christmas 2021 Edition results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for candies and toys, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winners determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game Christmas 2021 Edition?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to decide if they want to buy and sell candies or toys. They are allocated a budget to spend on their choice of candies or toys. They are given a choice of three types of candies (chocolates, toffees, or jellies) or toys (plush toys, robots, or bobbleheads) to buy and sell. They are required to buy them in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the candies or toys they have bought. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the candies and toys are determined with an Excel Model, which uses triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions in the contest question. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of candies or toys they have sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit from selling candy wins 20 Hive. The participant with the highest profit from selling toys wins 20 Hive. Whoever has the highest profit overall wins an additional 10 Hive. Therefore, 50 Hive will be given away.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The winners may win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Candies

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for chocolates, toffees, and jellies respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Chocolates

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Toffees

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Jellies

Table 1 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit (Candies)

Congratulations to @adedayoolumide for making the highest profit (in this case, the lowest loss) from buying and selling candies.

@adedayoolumide purchased 100 bags of chocolates at $2 per a bag, 300 toffees at $1.40 per a bag, and 180 bags of jellies at $1 per a bag. They were priced to sell at $7, $5, and $2 respectively. At those prices, 55 bags of chocolates, 7 bags of toffees, and 117 bags of jellies were sold. A total revenue of $654 ($385 for chocolates, $35 for toffees, and $234 for jellies) was generated. The total cost for purchasing these candies was $1,000 ($200 for chocolates, $420 for toffees, $180 for jellies, and $200 for daily overhead). @adedayoolumide’s total profit was -$346.

@adedayoolumide was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. @adedayoolumide could have made a higher profit by selling the toffees at a lower price.

Toys

Figures 4, 5, and 6 contain the model-generated demand curves for plush toys, robots, and bobbleheads respectively.

Figure 4: Model Generated Demand Curve for Plush Toys

Figure 5: Model Generated Demand Curve for Robots

Figure 6: Model Generated Demand Curve for Bobbleheads

Table 2 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit (Toys)

Congratulations to @emeka4 for making the highest profit from buying and selling toys.

@emeka4 purchased 50 plush toys at $8 per a toy, 10 robots at $15 per a toy, and 20 bobbleheads at $5 per a toy. They were priced to sell at $25, $60, and $15 respectively. At those prices 37 plush toys, 10 robots, and 20 bobbleheads were sold. A total revenue of $1,825 ($925 for plush toys, $600 for robots, and $300 for bobbleheads) was generated. The total cost for purchasing these toys was $850 ($400 for plush toys, $150 for robots, $100 for bobbleheads, and $200 for daily overhead). @emeka4’s total profit was $975.

@emeka4 was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. @emeka4 could have made a higher profit by buying and selling more bobbleheads. Boobleheads had a flatter demand curve, which could have enabled a higher price for higher quantities.

Overall Winner

The overall winner of the Christmas 2021 Edition of the Buying and Selling Game is @emeka4. Congratulations on making the highest profit. Choosing toys over candies was a smart move. Toys sold for much higher prices than candies. Considering we assumed that both candies and toys had the same number of potential customers (100 with the possibility of buying up to six of each type of candy or toy), it was easier to make a higher profit selling toys.

I would like to thank @diebitch, @ehizgabriel, and @maxwellnewlife7 for participating. I wish everyone a great Christmas period.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/tcfbiscr
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ (Business Version) Contest 23 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined with an Excel Model, which uses triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions in the contest question. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods they have sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner may win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for men’s, women’s, and children’s t-shirts respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Men’s T-shirts

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Women’s T-shirts

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Children’s T-shirts

Table 1 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @goldigolds for winning Contest 23 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game (Business Version).

@goldigolds purchased 20 men’s t-shirts at $15 per a t-shirt, 30 women’s t-shirts at $12 per a t-shirt, and 50 children’s t-shirts at $10 per a t-shirt. They were priced to sell at $33.35, $25, and $21 respectively. At those prices, all the t-shirts that were purchased were sold. A total revenue of $2,467 ($667 for men’s t-shirts, $750 for women’s t-shirts, and $1050 for children’s t-shirts) was generated. The total cost for purchasing these t-shirts was $1,360 ($300 for men’s t-shirts, $360 for women’s t-shirts, $500 for children’s t-shirts, and $200 for daily overhead). @goldigolds’ total profit was $1,107.

@goldigolds was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. The estimator focused on men’s and women’s t-shirts instead of children’s. This was because of the low budget and the higher willingness-to-pay of men and women for just a few t-shirts. If the budget had been higher, the estimator would have focused more on children’s t-shirts as they have a more elastic demand (more can be sold for a profit).

I would also like to thank @emeka4, @ehizgabriel, and @adedayoolumide for participating.

Contest Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit).

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/srrklrkp
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 22 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each drink for each island described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant that has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same amount of money, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each drink on each island.

Table 1: Selling prices of all drinks on each island

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @goldigolds for winning Contest 22 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game and a prize of 30 Hive.

On Bev Ridge, she bought 470 bottles of soda at $1.70 per bottle. She paid a total of $799.

On Liqwid, she sold the 470 bottles of soda at $2.564 per bottle. She received a total of $1,205. Therefore, she made a profit of $406 (1,205 – 799).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 380 milkshakes from Libation at $2.1 each and then selling them at Moist City for $3.482 each (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $525.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of drink.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @blueeyes, @nasri11, @nathanmars, @maxwellnewlife7, @emeka4 and @adedayoolumide for participating.

I wish everybody a happy Halloween.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the next contest, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media sistnetly

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/zzaujygi
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ (Business Version) Contest 21 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined using an Excel Model using triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner may win an additional 5 Hive if he or she has a profit higher than the profit generated by the model estimator. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for non-fiction, fiction, and children’s books respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Non-fiction Books

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Fiction Books

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Children’s Books

Table 1 contains responses, quantity sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @vanidike for winning Contest 21 of the 'Buying and Selling’ Game (Business Version).

@vanidike purchased 10 non-fiction books at 10 per a book, 60 fiction books at $9 per a book, and 60 children’s books at $5 per a book. They were priced to sell at $12, $10.75, and $6.75 respectively. At those prices, all the books purchased were sold. A total revenue of $1,170 ($120 for non-fiction books, $645 for fiction books, and $405 for children’s books) was generated. The total cost for purchasing these books was $1,140 ($100 for non-fiction books, $540 for fiction books, $300 for children’s books, and $200 for daily overhead). @vanidike’s total profit was $30.

@vanidike was unable to achieve a higher profit than the estimator. The estimator purchased more children’s books and priced all the books higher. Pricing higher can achieve a higher profit but if the price is too high some goods (e.g. books) will remain unsold, which could greatly reduce the profit.

Contest Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The size of the budget plays an important role in determining how much of each good should be purchased or produced.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be bought in higher quantities than goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where new customers’ willingness-to-pay (i.e. marginal revenue) is almost at cost (per unit). Thus, goods should not be priced too high.

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is exceptionally small, it might be optimal to produce just one good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility determine the shape of the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

Other important things to consider are batch size and costs of goods. Large batch sizes may force participants to focus on less goods, as the optimal number of some types of goods may fall short of the number in the batch. If the business is dealing with very low cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit by spreading purchases across all available goods. If the business is dealing with high cost goods, a participant is more likely to make a higher profit from focussing on one or two goods. This is because quantity demanded for high cost goods is normally lower than for low cost goods.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

View Details

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/eazkraiy
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version). This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the demand for each good, quantities sold, and profits for each participant for this contest.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

The participants are required to buy or produce goods with an allocated budget. They are given a choice of three types of goods to buy or produce. They are required to buy or produce these goods in combinations specified in the question. The participants are required to set the prices of the goods they have bought or produced. All costs are provided in the question. However, demand for each good is not provided.

The demand for the goods are determined using an Excel Model using triangle distributions. The participants are informed of the minimum, maximum, and mode values used to determine these distributions. The Excel Model uses the calculated demand and prices entered by the participants to calculate the number of goods sold. The prices, costs, quantities bought or produced, and quantities sold are used to determine the profit for each participant.

The participant with the highest profit after selling his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 20 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Below are five of them.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory
• Challenge 3: Cost Benefit Analysis
• Challenge 4: Make Me Happy
• Challenge 5: Auction

Results of the contest

Figures 1, 2, and 3 contain the model-generated demand curves for dolls, action figures, and plush toys respectively.

Figure 1: Model Generated Demand Curve for Dolls

Figure 2: Model Generated Demand Curve for Action Figures

Figure 3: Model Generated Demand Curve for Plush Toys

Table 1 contains responses, quantities sold, revenue, and the profit made by each participant.

Table 1: Participant responses and profit

Congratulations to @tamdike for winning Challenge 6 with a profit of $2245. @tamdike wins 30 Hive for this challenge (5 × 6) and 20 points. @diebitch is awarded 10 points for second place and @trangbaby is awarded 5 points for third place. @crrdlx and @sifondeseltz’s profits were not considered as both went over the $1000 budget.

@tamdike produced 25 dolls at $8 per a doll, 80 action figures at $5 per a doughnut, and 50 plush toys at $6 per a plush toy. @tamdike priced them to sell at $21, $24, and $16 respectively. At those prices, all dolls, action figures and plush toys were sold. This generated a total revenue of $3245 ($525 for dolls, $1920 for action figures, and $800 for plush toys). The total cost of producing these toys was $1000 ($200 for dolls, $400 for action figures, $300 for plush toys, and $100 daily overhead). @tamdike's total profit was $2245.

I would also like to thank @shubhwaj for participating.

Below are the challenge series overall scores, so far.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Tamdike | 50 | | Crrdlx | 45 | | Diebitch | 45 | | Shubhwaj | 30 | | Rexplanet | 10 | | Failingforwards | 5 | | Trangbaby | 5 |

Challenge Tips

For the business version of the Buying and Selling Game, a participant needs to understand three areas. These areas are:

• Impact of working under a budget.
• Relationships between costs, demand and price.
• Shape of the demand curve.

The extent of the budget plays a huge role in determining what goods should be focused on.

If the budget is large, production of goods should be more widely distributed across all three available types of goods. Generally, goods with elastic demand should be favoured over goods with inelastic demand. Goods should be bought close to the point where customers’ willingness-to-pay is almost at cost. Thus, goods should not be priced too high.

If the budget is small, goods with inelastic demand and high maximum price should be favoured over goods with elastic demand and lower maximum price. Prices should be high to capture as much consumer surplus from customers with high willingness-to-pay. If the budget is really small, it might be optimal to produce just one good.

Understanding the relationships between cost, demand, and price is essential for optimal pricing of goods. Goods must be priced above cost to make profit but if the prices are too high, insufficient customers will buy the goods, which will reduce profits.

The maximum, minimum, mode, and diminishing marginal utility shape the demand curve. High diminishing marginal utility increases inelasticity of demand. A large difference between maximum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the top portion of the demand curve. A large difference between minimum and mode price, increases inelasticity of demand in the bottom portion of the demand curve. The top half of the demand curve is most relevant when the budget is small. The bottom half of the demand curve is normally more relevant when the budget is large.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My New CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/dntsvjar
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for Challenge 5: Auction. This post contains a video of an Excel Model, which generates the values of all 12 items that were auctioned in the challenge, the winners of each auctioned item, and the participant who made the highest profit from the auction.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Auction Challenge?

The auction challenge allows participants to bid on up to 6 of 12 items in an auction. The participant who bids the highest wins the value of the auctioned item. However, the values of the auctioned items are not stated in the question. Instead, a range of values are stated. These values are generated using the Excel Model shown in the video in this post. Participants should aim to win the auctioned items without bidding over their values. This will produce a profit. Profit is calculated by subtracting the winning bid from the value of the item. The participant with the highest profit is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 20 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Below are five of them.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory
• Challenge 3: Cost Benefit Analysis
• Challenge 4: Make Me Happy
• Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)

Results of Challenge 5

Table 1 contains the bids made by all participants and the winners of each auctioned item.

Table 1: Bids and winners of auctions

All 6 participants who entered won at least one auctioned item. @bhattg won 4 items, @tamdike won 3, @rexplanet won 2, and @diebitch, @kevinnag58 and @crrdlx won 1 item each. Winning more items does not necessarily equate to obtaining the highest profit.

Table 2 contains the values of each item (generated by the model) and the profit each participant made on their winning bids. Table 3 contains the overall profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Value of items and profit made from each item

Table 3: Overall Profit made by Participants

Congratulations to @tamdike for winning the Auction Challenge with a profit of 351. @tamdike made profits on all three items won. @tamdike wins 30 Hive for this challenge (5 × 6) and 20 points. @diebitch is awarded 10 points for second place and @crrdlx is awarded 5 points for third place

Below are the challenge series overall scores, so far.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Crrdlx | 45 | | Diebitch | 35 | | Shubhwaj | 30 | | Tamdike | 30 | | Rexplanet | 10 | | Failingforwards | 5 |

Challenge Tips

@tamdike played close to the perfect game. Bidding on items with very few bids greatly increases chances of winning with a lower bid. Winning with a lower bid increases profit for each item won. If all items have many bids, bidding to win on most items is likely to result in overbidding, which will lead to a loss rather than a profit. Under these circumstances, the best chance of winning the game would be to bid on just a few items (possibly just one) that have a very large range in value. The chances of making a loss will be very high but if a profit is made it could be high and still provide a participant with a possible path to victory.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/trwjjwvp
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for Challenge 4: Make Me Happy. This post contains a video of an Excel Model, which generates the utility of activities for 5 different characters, which participants could have chosen to use to play this challenge.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Make Me Happy Challenge?

The Make Me Happy Challenge focuses on maximising the utility of different characters who have different preferences. Participants can choose between 5 different characters. Participants need to maximise the utility of their character using 168 hours in a week. This involves earning sufficient money to pay for basic needs as well as pay for activities that yield their character utility. Characters can only earn money from working. Working itself yields at least some utility but it is generally lower than most other activities. Characters do not start the week with any money and any remaining money yields no utility. The winner of the challenge will be the participant who provides the most utility for their character while not exceeding the characters disposable income.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 30 points, second place 20 points, and third place 10 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Below are five of them.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory
• Challenge 3: Cost Benefit Analysis
• Challenge 5: Auction
• Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)

Results of Challenge 4

Table 1 contains the utility for each activity for all 5 characters.

Table 1: Utility of Characters

Table 2 contains the allocation of time for each activity by all participants for this challenge.

Table 2: Allocation of time for each activity

Table 3 contains the income and expenditure for each participant's character.

Table 3: Income and Expenditure for Participant's Characters

Unfortunately, all the participants went over budget; see the video for explanation. Therefore, we do not have an outright winner. I have decided to split the prize evenly between the participants. @crrdlx, @rexplanet, and @tamdike have each won 5 Hive. I have decided, since nobody has fulfilled the criterion of staying within budget, no challenge series points will be awarded for this challenge

Below are the challenge series overall scores, so far.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Crrdlx | 40 | | Shubhwaj | 30 | | Diebitch | 25 | | Tamdike | 10 | | Rexplanet | 10 | | Failingforwards | 5 |

Challenge Tips

This challenge involved a careful balancing act between earning income, choosing high utility activities, and low cost activities. Different characters required different approaches. For example, Charlene obtains utility from many different activities. Therefore, spreading time more evenly is likely to produce higher utility for her. For a character like Patty, time would be better off concentrated on just a few activities such as exercise, sports, and video games. Patty also obtained relatively more utility from work. Working more hours would also help in allocating more time to the activities he enjoys the most even though they cost a bit more than other activities.

Apology regarding question

On revisiting the challenge question, I realised that it was not stated clearly that costs for activities were hourly. I believe the participants may have mistaken these cost for overall costs. This may have resulted in everyone over spending.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/thpbxkzp
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for Challenge 3: Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). This post contains a video of an Excel Model, which generates the growth rates for each town, and the costs and benefits for each participants’ investment decisions.

Winner determined in this video

What is the CBA Challenge?

The CBA Challenge is an investment challenge, which assesses the investment decisions of participants using CBA methodology. Participants are given four towns where they can choose to investment in education, healthcare, transport, and/or entertainment. Investment options relate to increasing capacity. Capacity of existing infrastructure and amenities can be increased by 5%, 10%, 20% or 50%. Participants are given $10 Billion to spend on investment decisions but are not compelled to spend all of it. The objective of the challenge is to obtain the highest Net Present Value (NPV).

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. In addition to the prize in Hive, the winner receives 40 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges

There are six other challenges in the series. Below are five of them.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Game Theory
• Challenge 4: Make Me Happy
• Challenge 5: Auction
• Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)

Results of Challenge 3

Table 1 contains the growth rates generated by the Excel Model for adults, children, elderly and tourists for the four towns.

Table 1: Population Growth Rates

Table 2 contains the investment decisions made by the four participants who entered this challenge.

Table 2: Participants Investment Decisions

Table 3 contains the benefits, costs, and NPV of the investment decisions made by each participant.

Table 3: Benefits, Costs, and NPV of Investment Decisions

The winner of Challenge 3 with the highest NPV is @crrdlx. @crrdlx achieved an NPV of -$916,714,193. @crrdlx wins 20 Hive (5 × 4) and is awarded 40 points. @rexplanet is award 10 points for second place and @diebitch is awarded 5 points for third place.

Below are the challenge series overall scores, so far.

Overall Series Score

| Participants | Points | | --- | --- | | Crrdlx | 40 | | Shubhwaj | 30 | | Diebitch | 25 | | Tamdike | 10 | | Rexplanet | 10 | | Failingforwards | 5 |

Challenge Tips

The aim of this challenge was to achieve the highest NPV as possible. In order to achieve a high NPV, the areas for the highest potential benefit should be targeted. In the case for this challenge, the areas with the highest potential user cost in the base case would have the highest potential benefit. User costs are directly linked to growth rates, existing capacity, and costs of exceeding capacity. For a user cost to exist, growth rates would need to push the demand above capacity. The sooner this occurs, the higher the user costs, as there are more years where capacity has been exceeded. However, if the costs of exceeding capacity are low, user costs should not be expected to be high.

The costs of exceeding capacity for hospitals is considerably higher than the costs of exceeding capacity for any of the other facilities and infrastructure. The next area to consider is investment cost. Is a large investment cost required to reduce user costs? Costs of upgrading hospitals in Grain are high compared to other towns and Grain is only at 92% capacity when other towns such as Corn and Rice are at 98% and 95% capacity respectively. Therefore, a sensible strategy would be to provide Grain with a smaller upgrade of 10%, Rice with a larger upgrade of 20% and Corn with an upgrade of 20% or 50%. Figure 1 contains the user costs in the base case.

Figure 1: Base Case User Costs

I ran 4 simulations using a strategy of just investing in hospitals. Grain was upgraded by 10%, Rice was upgrade by 20% and Corn was upgraded by 50%. Each simulation generated a small but positive NPV. See Table 4.

Table 4: Challenge Results and Four simulations with Hospital Focus

After considering upgrading hospitals, the next areas should be other areas that are at or very close to capacity. For example, entertainment is at 100% capacity in Wheat. A small upgrade of 5% or 10% would most likely add to the NPV. Areas that are above 95% capacity and have a high probability of positive growth are likely to increase NPV. For example, small investments in High Schools in Wheat or Transport in Grain will probably produce positive NPVs.

Investing in an area with the potential for very high growth might be tempting but if there is plenty of excess capacity, the returns will come much later and possibly not at all, if the very high growth is not realised. For example in Rice, High Schools were at 80% capacity but the growth rate for children was 3.6%. Therefore, maximum capacity was reached quite quickly. However, growth could have been as low as 1%, which would have produced a negative NPV. Therefore, investing in upgrading the High Schools in Rice would have been risky but also potentially very rewarding.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ndverxgu
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each car for each town or city described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video

What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered the monthly contest series, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns or cities in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns or cities are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town or city. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the highest profit after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The account with the winning entry will receive Hive equivalent to 5 times the number of participants (e.g. if challenge has 6 participants the prize will be 30 Hive (5 × 6)). The maximum prize for this challenge is 60 Hive. In addition to the winning prize, the first 12 entries are given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive, if the prize is below 60 Hive.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other challenges There are six other challenges in the series. Below are three of them.

• Challenge 2: Game Theory (Most or Least)
• Challenge 3: Cost Benefit Analysis
• Challenge 4: Make Me Happy

Results of Challenge 1

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each car in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all cars in each town or city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

The winner of challenge 1 is @diebitch. @diebitch wins 20 Hive as the challenge had 4 participants. @diebitch also earns 20 points, which contributes to determining the series winner. @tamdike earned 10 points for being 2nd and @failingforwards earned 5 points for being 3rd.

@diebitch won by buying 13 SUVs for $22,000 each in Rode Town for a total of $286,000. Then went on to sell these SUVs in Lain City for $32,337 each. Therefore, made a profit of 134,381 (420,381 – 286,000).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 8 Sports cars from Rode Town $34,000 each and then selling them at Streat Town for $65,218 (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $249,744.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of car.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @crrdlx for participating.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the Buying and Selling Game monthly contest series, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/vxgrnevr
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Contest 20 results post. This post contains a video of the ‘Buying and Selling Game’ Excel Model generating the selling prices for each bed for each town or city described in the initial question.

Winner determined in this video What is the Buying and Selling Game?

For the benefit of those who have not entered this contest, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns, cities, islands or planets in the game. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods on a future date. The selling prices for all goods in all towns, cities, islands or planets are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town, city, island or planet. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant that has the most money after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the contest are made in the comments section of the post. If several participants make the same amount of money, the person who entered (commented) first will win. The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive. If nobody makes a profit (i.e. zero or negative), the prize will be rolled over to the next contest.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the contest itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the contest post using the following link.

Results of the contest

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each bed in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all beds in each town or city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

For this contest, we had two participants with the same profit. They were @crrdlx and @diebitch. According to the rules explained in the entry post, ‘If two participants make the exact same profit, the participant that entered first wins’. As @crrdlx entered first, he is the winner of this contest and will be awarded 30 Hive.

In Snooze City, he bought 272 Queen Beds at $110 each. He paid a total of $29,920.

At Nap Castle, he sold the 272 Queen Beds at $143 each. He received a total of $38,896. Therefore, he made a profit of $8,976 (38,896 – 29,920).

Highest possible profit

The strategy that would have generated the highest profit would have been to buy 400 Single Beds from Snooze City at $75 each and then selling them at Nap Castle for $130.75 (as generated by the model). This would have generated a profit of $22,300.

Table 3 contains the lowest buying prices, the highest selling prices and the highest profit for selling each type of bed.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

I would also like to thank @vanidike, @razielmorales, @sinahit, and @diebitch for participating.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the next contest, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)

Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)

Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)0.5

Proof Median

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

Spectrumecons Seven-Week Challenge (Coming Soon)

In July and August, I will be running a Seven Week Challenge Series. All the challenges will be focused around economics. Participants only need to enter through the comments section of each challenge post. Participants could win up to 60 Hive in each challenge. The first 12 participants for each challenge will receive an upvote. There will also be an overall winner for the entire series. For full details, read my post Spectrumecons Seven-Week Challenge (Coming Soon).

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/ipsnvsde
Hi Everyone,

In 2020, I dedicated 10 written posts to the ‘Prevent, Solve, or Manage Approaches’. In the first post in that series, I described the general concepts behind ‘Prevent, Solve, and Manage’. In the other nine posts, I discussed how it could be applied to areas such as:

• Health
• Crime
• Housing
• Education
• Travel, transport, and transportation
• Migration
• Money
• Environment
• Leadership

What’s in the video?

In the video, in this post, I revisit the theory I discussed in the first post of the series. The theory is very important as it provides basis for how Prevent, Solve, or Manage approaches could be applied and how they could add value to tackling many different types of problems.

Prevent, Solve, or Manage approaches are discussed using a Venn diagram. This approach has been adopted as it is possible all three, some of the three, or just one of the three approaches could be used to tackle a problem. Generally, ‘prevent’ is prioritised over ‘solve’ and ‘solve’ is prioritised over ‘manage’. ‘Prevent’ stops the problem occurring; therefore, is generally preferred to ‘solve’, which involves removing the problem once it has arrived. ‘Solve’ is generally preferred to ‘manage’, which does not remove the problem but instead just mitigates the damage it causes. However, generally, it is better to have several approaches in place. It is possible prevention could fail. If it does, it would be good to be able to solve the problem or even just manage it.

It is important to note I have used the word ‘generally’. Each approach has a cost and a probability of success. For example, ‘solve’ could be preferred over ‘prevent’, if the cost of prevention is high and the probability of success is low. If the expected cost of prevention (probability × cost) exceeds the expected cost of solving plus the cost of the problem for the duration it takes for the problem to be solved, ‘solve’ would be a superior approach to prevention. However, combining ‘prevent’ and ‘solve’ approaches will lower the risk from detrimental effects of a problem even if not the expected cost. Other factors to consider are the certainty a problem will occur and if it is certain, how well can it be predicted to occur in advance.

Below are the main sections of the video and the timings in the video where I discuss these sections.

• Introduction (0:15 minutes)
• Describing ‘Prevent, Solve, or Manage using a Venn Diagram (1:30 minutes)
• Alliterative naming convention such as Prevent, Cure, or Treat (3:05 minutes)
• Extent of control over a problem (4:25 minutes)
• Varying risk when applying Prevent, Solve, or Manage (6:35 minutes)
• Comparing control and risk (9:04 minutes)
• How ability to predict a problem affects risk (10:18 minutes)
• How certainty of occurrence of problem affects risk (11:55 minutes)
• Examining probabilities of success (13:50 minutes)
• Examining costs of approach and problem (16:06 minutes)
• Explaining how expected value and costs affects application of Prevent, Solve, or Manage approaches (18:27 minutes)
• Explaining how priority can vary depending on probabilities of success as well as costs (22:05 minutes)
• Summarising the main points of the video (23:15 minutes)
• Brief description of the potential application of Prevent, Solve, or Manage (25:37 minutes)

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My New CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/wyywqluy
Hi Everyone,

In the video in this post, I revisit the topics of my written post Power, Money and Me Me Me. I believe the ideas covered in the original written post are very important. These ideas include our perceptions of value and our perceptions of how to obtain value. There is a strong focus on how our perceptions shape rational thought and behaviour. The post and this video contain discussions about how our behaviour affects other people. Our perceptions of other people and our level of regard for them often influence this behaviour. An important part of both the post and video are the discussions about how people reach certain goals in life.

The video focuses on obtaining money and power and how these pursuits are often likely to be interlinked. Acquiring monetary wealth enables a person to influence power. This could lead to having power directly or helping someone else obtain power. Helping someone else obtain power is likely to be rewarded with even more monetary wealth. People who reach positions of power are likely do so because they desire it the most. They are also likely to desire power considerably more than what they desire of anything else; thus making it a key focus of their life. Once they reach a position of power, they are likely to be focused on either maintaining that power or expanding that power even further. Ultimately, this results in power hungry people reaching positions of power. This will occur regardless of the process that put them in power. For example, representative democracy only gives the voters a choice between various power-driven people (normally two) as only the most power-driven people will ever be or put in a position to become an elected leader.

What’s in the video?

Below are the main sections of the video and the timings in the video where I discuss these sections.

• Introduction to Power, Money, and Me Me Me (0:08 minutes)
• Rational behaviour and perception (1:15 minutes)
• Our perceptions about what gives us value (3:10 minutes)
• Rational behaviour and altruism (5:00 minutes)
• Perceptions about what we want, how we are going to get it, and what we are willing to give up to get it (6:30 minutes)
• The influence perceptions have on our decision-making process (9:00 minutes)
• Effect of emotion on rational behaviour (10:50 minutes)
• Effect of education on rational behaviour (12:20 minutes)
• What are we willing to sacrifice to become or remain wealthy (13:30 minutes)
• Wealthiest because of the desire to be wealthy (15:00 minutes)
• Powerful because of the desire to be powerful (16:40 minutes)
• Important connections between wealth and power (18:00 minutes)
• Power and wealth and implications about world leaders and Government (19:55 minutes)
• Summary of main and important points of the video (22:30 minutes)

I hope you enjoyed the video. Below are several other posts with similar themes.

The Two-Party Political System – The dictatorship we didn’t know we had

Raise your hand if you live in a Democracy

Could democracy succeed if it was given a chance?

Obedience

Is Socialism being used as a path to Fascism?

Are the ‘right-wing’ hijacking conspiracy theory to maintain the two party system?

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https://3speak.tv/watch?v=spectrumecons/xvjeiwsj
Hi Everyone,

In early 2020, I wrote a post titled Perfection – The curse so many of us pursue. In that post, I discussed my ideas about perfection and the problems with perfection and the pursuit of it. Many people strive to attain perfection as they consider it the ultimate goal or sign of success. I have a very different view. Instead, I believe imperfection is superior to perfection. The written post explains the logic I use to support my arguments. The video presents many of the same ideas and arguments but in a different format, which might be preferred by some people. I also believe the video adds value to the written post, as it expands on previous points as well as includes some addition thoughts on the topic.

Definitions of Perfection.

A great place to start exploring a topic is with definitions. Below are the definitions that I refer to in the video presentation.

Having everything that is necessary; complete and without faults or weaknesses (Oxford).

Something that is perfect is as good as it could possibly be (Collins).

Excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement (Dictionary.com).

My biggest problem with perfection is that it cannot be improved upon. It brings us to a point of stagnation, as changes cannot improve the situation. We have reached a point where it is as good as it gets.

What’s in the video?

In the video in this post, I revisit my ideas about perfection. As over a year has lapsed since my written post, it is possible my opinions could have changed. I looked over the original post and found that most of my opinions are still very similar. For the video, I have updated the pictures from the original post to reflect Hive branding. I have also added an extra slide to the video, which I think is important as it adds additional perspective to my ideas regarding perfection.

Below are the main sections of the video and the timings in video where I discuss these sections.

• Introduction to my ideas regarding perfection (0:08 minutes)
• Definitions of perfection (1:50 minutes)
• Problems with perfection relating to homogeneity and the bigger picture (2:35 minutes)
• The perfect species (super humans) and operating as a society and maintaining an ecosystem (6:05 minutes)
• The perfect collapse of society through a lack of ability to diversify (7:30 minutes)
• Perfection and perception (10:15 minutes)
• Path to perfection and limitation of our expectations (12:50 minutes)
• Imperfection is what makes us special (15:00 minutes)

Key message from the video

The key message from the video is that our imperfections enable us to receive and offer value to others. We can use our skills, expertise, and knowledge in particular areas to help those who have skills, expertise, and knowledge in different areas; the same is true vice versa. Together we can create an ecosystem that works well. We would be able to continuously change, adapt and improve our ecosystem, as we discover new things or when circumstances require us to make changes. Imperfection keeps life interesting and in many ways more beautiful because of the diversity of imperfection.

More posts

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.

My New CBA Udemy Course

The course contains over 10 hours of video, over 60 downloadable resources, over 40 multiple-choice questions, 2 sample case studies, 1 practice CBA, life time access and a certificate on completion. The course is priced at the Tier 1 price of £20. I believe it is frequently available at half-price.

Future of Social Media