Winning at Rock Paper Scissors - Numberphile

More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓

Art and animation by Pete McPartlan

NUMBERPHILE

Videos by Brady Haran

[anthoneeparker]

I always play rock so someone can hold my hand for a bit 😢

[Dusk-MTG]

Losing as paper or scissors seems very painful, I'll just play rock over and over again.

[camila.m.santos]

This why my friend and I tied 7 times straights and started thinking 5 steps a head and almost died from overthinking lol

[galaxsea]

The fingers being bent and broken by the rock just makes me uncomfortable.

[ToTakiSuperSlime]

it becomes really weird when both people know this

[ArtemisTherion]

This reminds me of a funny story. I had a coworker who I would play rock, paper, scissors with whenever we were trying to decide something between us. Who went on break first, who got the last drink in the fridge, ect. We would do this probably at least once a day, and for 6 years he always chose scissors with the intention that he should stick to his choice because eventually it will win. Coincidentally I also chose to stick with my strategy of playing rock and going on the longest winning streak ever in rock versus scissors.

[Tohob]

i just keep picking rock over and over again. people keep being like "surely he won't pick rock again" and go for scissors, but i keep picking rock. even if i lose. rock wins. rock always wins.

[MrRake-jkdq]

Plot twist: Your opponent has also seen this video.

[CreamySpoon]

"Rock flies right through paper!"
"Then what beats rock?"
"Nothing beats rock!"

[omargoodman]

If you ask them a question just before they throw, most people will reflexively throw rock. Also, if you throw rock and lose, your hand is already conveniently made into a fist.

[Arturo-Peredo]

I love how the animation of the kids shows them getting progressively more sad

[BUFU]

Interestingly enough in world championships (yeah, I don't know either..) the best players randomly choose a series and then stupidly play it without thinking about it twice. Before the later stages though, they basically crawl into their opponents' minds and have almost psychic abilities to predict their next move (like the "I won - I use it again!" thing here that happens mostly unconsciously). But at a certain point it is too risky to rely on that and random beats the prediction. Their opponents can't read their unconscious mind if they stick to random.

[directoryerror]

TL;DW:
If you lose, play what wasn't played
If you win, play what they just played

[MrDeeb]

The rock on Hannah's finger defeats us all.

[bubblegumstudios]

Here’s a thing: so I’ve realized that often people find the need to NOT play any duplicates. If you go and play against someone who never duplicates, play whatever would lose to what they just played. This guarantees you either getting a point or having a draw. If you lose the first match, go backwards until you win, and then use this strategy. In the end, you’re opponent will only get points from either the beginning or any duplicates you play.

[Talamare]

But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me. Because iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong, so you could've put the poison in your own goblet, trusting on your strength to save you, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But, you've also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal, so you would have put the poison as far from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

[adraedin]

I recalled seeing this a few years back - I forgot a lot of the mechanics/math/theory except for the "play what they just played" part. So, I took that little info, and challenged a friend to RPS and beat them 8 times in a row. They were as stunned as I was. It doesn't work every time, but it is fairly consistent.

In practice, or rather - from personal experience - I think simply picking one "rule/strategy" and following it every time is the way to go instead of trying to anticipate your opponents next move based off a large/changing dataset.

AIso, found it VERY entertaining to watch my opponents essentially "playing against themselves" while I did a minimal amount of work/calculating.

[ZiVazier]

Used these tips against my 15 year old little sister and it was disastrous, we played for 10 rounds, I only won the first one. she never stopped laughing at me knowing that I told her I'd never lose at all. Thank you Numberphile.

PS: My sister sucks at RPS.

[e-nsecure]

i lost 3 grand with this strategy. Thank you

[RyanGerhardtYimimoto]

I am no one to be trifled with. I have spent the past few years building up an immunity to rock.