Hacker News Reader

Comment by jansan | Hacker News Reader

I was actually expecting a book that explains real street fighting with mathematics (like kinetics of certain moves, optimizing impact on the opponent, etc.). I am a bit disappointed after reading the abstract...

View on HN

I've learned from acquaintances who grew up in "tough" places, where street fights are more common, that violence is more about social posturing than it is about the actual fighting. In these places one's reputation can be protection. If everyone knows Bob will escalate situations to a physical fight, then few people will confront Bob. I've heard it's analogous to mutually assured destruction, where the "crazier", more inclined toward violence an individual is, the less likely it is they will end up in street fights.

I imagine if you wanted to study fighting in a mathematical way, you would want to study experts. MMA fighters, boxers, Muay Thai fighters all optimize their bodies and technique toward effective fighting. I bet there would be interesting science/math there, but I doubt street fighting would actually yield much insight.

Rory Miller calls the most common social posturing "the Monkey Dance."

http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2013/03/cofv8-monkey-danc...

related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23429390

(to reply directly: leverage is useful, mixed game strategies are useful, beyond that I can't think of other applicable theories. Miller points out that non-posturing violence is usually as unfair as possible, so maybe big-O notation?)

I had a similar reaction, expecting the text to show the mathematics of how to win street fights. I expected to read about arm length in conjunction with weapon use in equation form to solve for the maximum number of opponents who could be beaten. Then, the click-bait headline led me to a reall cool looking mathematics book! I still want the original book, though....

I was expecting a book about mathematical modelling of games from the Street Fighter fighting game series.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com