This is one movie you must see. A Beautiful Mind loosely chronicles the life of John Nash, a mathematician at Princeton who changed the way economists view the world. In the movie, Nash’s eureka moment occurs while he is with his friends in a bar. Five girls enter the establishment, and Nash and his friends start contemplating who will get the blonde. Eventually, the conversation turns to Adam Smith and one of his famous quotes, “In competition, individual ambition serves the common good.”
“Every man for himself, gentlemen,” says one of Nash’s friends. And another adds, “And those who strike out are stuck with their friends.”
Eventually, the blonde looks over at Nash, and he joins the conversation saying, “Adam Smith needs revision.” Nash goes on to state that no one should pursue the blonde because they will all end up interfering with one another and no one will get her. What’s worse, none of her friends will want them either because no one likes to be the second choice. However, if they all stay away from the blonde, no one interferes, no one gets insulted, and that is the only way to “win.”
Nash’s friends accuse him of making an attempt to get the girl all to himself, but Nash continues to make his point. He asserts that what Adam Smith said was incomplete. Instead of everyone in a group doing what is best for himself, everyone should do what is best for himself and the group. At this point, Nash rushes out of the bar and spends the next few months writing his treatise on general equilibrium theory.
Once you finish watching the video, you are to answer the following question and submit your answer, and reasons by uploading your document on Canvas.
Question: The video clip seems to claim that what John Nash described to his friends was the Nash equilibrium that no one should pursue the blonde. Please discuss why this cannot be the Nash Equilibrium according to what we learned from this module.
