Hacker News Reader

> Sometimes I think of Python as the Nash Equilibrium of programming languages

FYI: What you're describing is not a Nash equilibrium, but a Pareto optimal point [1]. They are similar in that you couldn't do any better, but Nash equilibria is in terms of whether this would cause other players to change their strategies, while Pareto optimality is only about trading off different features/dimensions.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_efficiency

View on HN

Think of the developers as players competing against each other trying to get their ideas (PEPs) incorporated into the language, seeking individual recognition, credit, etc., and also think of languages competing against each other for developer attention, and then it will make a bit more sense why I called it a "Nash Equilibrium" :-)

Nash equilibria are mainly interesting when they are not Pareto optimal. Both the developers and users of a language, if being rational, should prefer languages to be on the Pareto frontier, but where on that frontier depends on how you weight the trade-offs.

I feel my comment is being taken way too seriously... but yes, I agree.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com