Thinking of life as a game makes it more fun. Some of the most interesting (and successful) people I know think of life as though there were points to be won or lost for the sheer entertainment of playing. And game theory, the study of how logic and probability influence outcomes in games, has some [...]

There’s a Zen story that taught me a lot about the nature of giving and receiving:
While Seisetsu was the master of Engaku in Kamakura he required larger quarters, since those in which he was teaching were overcorwded. Umezu Seibei, a merchant of Edo, decided to donate five hundred pieces of gold called ryo toward the [...]