TIL about Schelling Point
A Schelling point is a solution people naturally pick when they need to coordinate but can’t communicate.
The classic example is the flagpole at an American high school. If you and your friends have not discussed a meeting place, that’s where you go. Other examples include the entrance at a crowded festival or Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
The concept is named after the economist Thomas Schelling who wrote extensively about it. What I find interesting about the concept is that it’s an accepted concept in Game Theory…but economists still don’t quite know how humans develop Schelling Points, even among strangers.
The simplest examples of Schelling Points are meeting places, but the concept applies across any coordinated action among strangers. They happen when humans consider other human’s shared cultural assumptions and then act on them. It’s like a theory of the mind hall of mirrors that causes all sorts of positive (safety and emergency standards) and negative real life consequences.
