#game-theory #cooperation #society #wealth # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought # Comparative Advantage #to-digest Bob group is good at making axes but can decently make spears. Alice group is good at making spears but can decently make axes. Bob group trade axes for spears to Alice group. Bob group will prefer to focus on building axes Alice group will prefer to focus on building spears. >The solution societies find, as they get more specialized, is to make the trade into a two-step process. Instead of trading violins directly for potatoes, you trade violins for, say, silver, which you can then trade again for anything else you need. The intermediate stuff—the medium of exchange—can be anything that’s rare and portable. Historically metals have been the most common, but recently we’ve been using a medium of exchange, called the dollar, that doesn’t physically exist. >~ [[Paul Graham]]