Bridge-Bidding Decision Making

[firstfrost]

So, one of the reasons that I rarely end up in an argument with harrock is that we have a ridiculously simple method for deciding on things (I know I've mentioned it to some people before, but in my new vague quest to talk about things other than book reviews, I thought I would talk about it...). Basically, it works the way bidding in bridge does.

An example, using the Classic Disagreement of "Where Should We Go For Dinner?" which seems to constantly plague society.

1: Want to go to Uno's for dinner?	A mild suggestion, no strong preference. Call it one club.
2: I had pizza for lunch; something else would be good.	You can't bid "not one club", you have to actually suggest something else.
2: I had pizza for lunch; how about Indian?	It's not a much stronger preference, but it's a little bit of one. This might be one spade.
3: Or we could do Chinese, if you'd rather.	This is still mucking around in sounding like "I don't really care" area, it's like bidding one diamond, and it's too late for that. You have to actually bid *higher*.
3: Oh! Hey, there's a new Chinese place at Fifth and Main I've been wanting to try. How about that?	A legitimate overbid. Maybe it's two notrump.
Alternate 3: I was really looking forward to Uno's, actually. I've been thinking about pizza skins all day.	Back to the original suit, but at three clubs or so now. I personally think it's better form to open with the three clubs to start with, but this is still an acceptable bid.
4: Okay.	Pass. The last person to bid has made the decision.

The only real rule is that you can counter (not veto) the previous suggestion, but only if you care more. My mild whim doesn't overrule (can I use "trump" here in absolutely the *wrong* bridge context?) your fond desire - my mild whim doesn't even overrule your mild whim, if you bid first.

I suppose it doesn't have much automatic compromising built in, other than that each person is better off picking suggestions that the other person likes, so they'll be less likely to be outbid.

Comments

Oddball edge cases

[twe.livejournal.com]

Me: Are you hungry?
Him: I don't know.

It's puzzling to me, but he claims to rarely feel hungry. (Though I have learned to detect when he is probably hungry from changes in his mood. :)

Re: Oddball edge cases

[navrins]

*laugh*

Yeah, if that's the "him" I think it is, it sure sounds like him.

Re: Oddball edge cases

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

That's funny. :)

(I would work this in my system by starting with the one-heart of "I'm hungry. Time for dinner?" Then he'd have to be detectably and significantly Not Hungry in order to outbid you with two-clubs for "I'm not hungry yet; how about in an hour?")

(Of course, I do realize that not everyone is required to use my system. But it solves all ills and is a dessert topping *and* a floor wax!)

Re: Oddball edge cases

[twe.livejournal.com]

Mostly I just cook, so he gets what I feel like cooking. He does sometimes make suggestions/offer input. (Occasionally, he gets charged with ordering delivery.) Mostly though, we aren't too picky about food.

Me: What do you want to do for dinner?
Him: Eat some.

Re: Oddball edge cases

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Me: What do you want for dinner?
My him: Food.

Re: Oddball edge cases

[twe.livejournal.com]

Heh. Everyone's a comedian. (Though I must admit, my response to "Eat some." is often "Thank you, Charles." an allusion to what we refer to as the "Charles [Redacted] School of Helpful Advice." )

Re: Oddball edge cases

[dcltdw]

We occassionally have that failure mode, but this is readily handled by IfWeDoNotGetFoodSoonIWillGnawYourLegOffExceptionHandler:

Alyse: I'm hungry. Let's get food.
Dave: I'm not. No wait, I like ambulating. Ok, where do you want to go?

I think, in our case, the person who brought it up is driving the process, since if they weren't hungry, they wouldn't have mentioned it. So since they care, the other person usually defers.

This doesn't work as well if we had picked a time to get dinner, in which case, we explicitly throw DoYouCareException, for which the entire point is to establish "are you just throwing out Uno's so we don't just stand here and eventually starve to death, or did you really want to go to Uno's?".

I don't think we have a built-in "not one clubs", although bidding "not one clubs" often causes NotACounterSuggestionException to be thrown; the rest of the time, it triggers "did you have other ideas?", which is used either because the person bidding "not one clubs" has a mild suggestion but is querying for the existence of strong preferences. Of course, "did you have any other ideas?" can, in and of itself, cause NotACounterSuggestionException to be thrown, which I think implicitly rebids One Unos to Two Unos.

...

I've been up since 5:30, see? This totally makes sense to me. :)

Re: Oddball edge cases

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I've been totally traumatized by DoYouCareExceptions in the past. "Well, do you want to?" "Not if you don't want to." "Well, if you don't want to, I don't want to make you." "No, if you want to, then I don't really mind."

Re: Oddball edge cases

[dcltdw]

No no, you just subclassed DoYouCareException into DoYouCareBecauseIActuallyDoButAmNotSayingSoException, which should be trapped and cause WhatTheHeckIsWithThisPassiveAggressiveNonsenseException to be thrown. :)

But yes, sometimes we have that failure mode, but this is why having the trumps-everything IfYouDoNotDecideSoonIWillGnawYourLegOff state is so darn useful. ;)

Re: Oddball edge cases

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I know want to fit "IfYouDoNotDecideSoonIWillGnawYourLegOff Exception" into as many conversations as possible.

Re: Oddball edge cases

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

That is a great name for that exception, which I am often guilty of.

Unfortunately, I tend to throw "IfWeDoNotDecideSoonIWillGnawYourLegOff"
exceptions in parallel with "NoI'mNotInTheMoodForANYRestaurantYouSuggestDammit" exceptions, at which point I forcefully get reminded of the "you can't bid not one club (Dammit) (even if you want to gnaw my leg off)" rule.

I had no idea everyone else had as much dinner negotiating as us!

[kelkyag]

I usually go for the "WillGnawYourArmOffIfNotFedSoon" exception, myself. But then, I've been known to try that ...

Re: Oddball edge cases

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

Ah, see, our version of this goes as follows:

Me: I don't feel like cooking tonight, let's get take out. (deals cards)

DH: Okay. What do you want? (pass)

Me: I dunno, what do you want? (pass)

In bridge, you'd simply redeal. Unfortunately, there's no good analogy to fall back on for deciding what's for dinner.

Re: Oddball edge cases

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I often don't know if I'm hungry, but if I start snapping at people it usually turns out that I needed calories.