The geometry of rules (or how to "game the system")

My goal with Misaligned Markets is to understand how markets incentivize behaviors that lead to market failure. While I’ve leaned on analogies like corporate kung fu and capitalism as a computer system, I want to isolate patterns that work at a more granular level. To that end, have started thinking about games, sports, and other competitive activities. This has helped me understand how rules in role-based systems can be abused to create action asymmetries that allow an actor to take actions others cannot. This idea is core to the conception of market power I’m working toward with this project.It’s not just a gameThe study of games is a broad area, but arguably, few works have been as influential as Homo Ludens by Dutch cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. Core to Huizinga’s thesis is the concept of the magic circle. For Huizinga and the theorists who came after him, many domains of human interest—from the free play of children, to religious rituals and competitive sport—function as…