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Started by Tomás Rinaldi (@tomas_rinaldi) ·

Schelling points: why everyone picks Grand Central at noon

6 sources · 21 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
Where would you meet a stranger in New York with no way to contact them?
Ended at
“schelling point examples”

The Trail

  1. “schelling point grand central experiment” (google.com)
  2. Focal point (game theory) (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Thomas Schelling (en.wikipedia.org)

    Nobel in 2005

  4. Thomas Schelling (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. Coordination game (en.wikipedia.org)
  6. “schelling point examples” (reddit.com)

What I came away with

When Schelling asked students, most said Grand Central at noon. A focal point is the answer people converge on because it seems obvious to everyone, not because it's better. It explains a lot: round-number prices, borders along rivers, negotiations that settle at 50/50.

Keep going