and here's the answer

watched 'the cat returns' today. FYI, it's an anime that's been sitting in my laptop for around a month cos I was trying to save it for a better occasion. Guess there's only so much waiting I can take. Heh.

today's been a freak-gale day. Strong winds everywhere. Good time to be staying at home and relaxing. Didn't do much today, and I'm not at all regretful abt it. Going to have a lot on my hands real soon, once mugging gets underway.

as for yesterday's game, the theoretical answer is indeed 0 (sorry zun, I'm not giving out any ice-creams. Anyway u study game theory too, so it's not fair. Hah). Why? because if the numbers run from 0 to 100, then half the mean can only take values from 0 to 50. Therefore everyone - because they are smart - will only write down numbers from 0 to 50. But if this is true, then the numbers only run from 0 to 50. And half the mean will have a range between 0 and 25. Therefore, everyone will write down numbers from 0 to 25... if u follow this reasoning all the way through, then the only number u (and everyone else) will write is 0.

well, so much for theory. When my class played the game, half the mean turned out to be around 26. Guess even for game theory students, game theory takes some getting used to.

now, for the real hard-core nerds: there's actually an economic model that has a slightly similar concept. It models the 'lemons' problem, that is, why the used-car market contains so many junk vehicles. I'd explain it here, but it's probably going to be an overkill of econs for one entry. (I can hear the sighs of relief from here.)

right, time to look for dinner. Slacking makes me hungry.