March 6

My Day

Dear Diary! Yesterday, I forgot to set an alarm. But luckily, I woke up early today. Well; “luckily”: I am trying to adjust my sleep schedule. And it starts to show results!

So after getting up, I had a quick breakfast, and then headed to university, since today I had some TA action. Today was the first day, I didn’t use a winter jacket, but a spring jacket. And let me tell you: Wayy better.

Volleyball News

Once I arrived at the university, I suddenly got an email. It was from the volleyball association. In short, they wrote, that we may still rank up with our team, but we may have to play (and win) a short tournament. This made my day good – like instantly.

TA Fumble

Anyway, back to being a TA: It was nothing too notable. I of course had to answer some questions from the students. I had the solution of the old quiz open, and they had the reasoning for the solutions. Then one student asked, why a specific answer was true, and I replied like a dumbass: it’s written there. And in hindsight: this was a stupid answer by me. So in future, I’ll try to answer better. (For the other answers, I answered better.)

Prisoner’s Dilemma

Also, I had a short discussion with the phd-student who’s supervising this lecture’s exercise hour. We had a disagreement about the prisoner’s dilemma (since it’s in the next exercise sheet, which the students need to solve).
The exercise states that: They are a rational prisoner. What do they choose.

Now his line of reasoning was: Independent of what the other prisoner chooses, you have a higher reward if you confess. Therefore, a rational prisoner confesses.
And my reasoning was: Yes, this is true, if you have a “random” other prisoner (that is, if he may or may not be rational). But, if the other prisoner is rational: you can assume, that both come to the same conclusion, so you both should remain quiet. (Of course, I assumed here that “rational” is unique…)
Because of this discussion he then changed the exercise, a bit. So now it’s clear what is wanted.

But in all reality, the question is not answered as of yet. What would be the rational way of choosing. I asked around at home, and most said, to remain silent. But half of the reasons were independent of the reward matrix (haha).
If you have a good guess, write that down! (haha)

Rest of Day

After all that, I went home for lunch. Then, in the afternoon, I corrected the exercises from the students, and watched a lot of YouTube… That’s all that’s happened today. After all not too bad, I’d say. I’m gonna shower now, and then go to bed!

So, I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!