Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentine's Day prisoners dilemma

Our real Valentine's gift to each other is the trip to Disney World that we are on right now. Thus we said no other gifts for Valentine's Day. However, did she get me something else?

She is not to much of a card person, but so as not to risk getting in trouble I asked if she got me a card. Oops, she did, so I had to get one at the Walgreen's where we were having the conversation yesterday. That was some close timing.

So the Valentine's Day prisoner's dilemma is this - If neither of us get a card we both come out ahead, saving the cost of the card and the worry of getting one. If one of us gets a card for the other doesn't then she gets credit for thoughtfulness and he (me) is a cad for forgetting. What happened is we both got cards fearing the other did in spite of the big Disney World trip. Thus we are out card cash and time spent picking so we both "lose", but at least I am not a cad.

The cards were nice and we had a laugh about the game theory approach to Valentine's Day. Since for us every day is Valentine's Day (except those that are Christmas) it's no big deal and we are really enjoying our Valentine's trip.

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