The Prisoner's Dilemma is a famous model in game theory. I am far from an expert in game theory - although I did have the pleasure of meeting Prof. Israel Aumann, nobel laureate in economics and world game theory expert - but I can grasp, and sometimes explain, some of the basics. The Prisoner's Dilemma describes a situation wherein if everyone cooperated, they would have the best outcome. However, because they are prisoners and cannot coordinate with others, they make independently rational decisions.

What would you call a global, enormous, Fortune 500 company that 95 out of 100 of its employees strongly recommend it as a place to work? Sure, an exciting new startup, but an old-school 70-year old company? What if that company was IBM? In a great article by a former IBM manager, he explains how they used to have: Merciless manager reviews Managers much younger than their employees who took severe criticism from those employees.

It has happened again. Another horror story of an airline leaving customers in miserable conditions for hours on the tarmac. This time, however, it happened multiple times over a 28 (!!) hour period. According to the Jerusalem Post article, United Airlines Flight 84 from Newark to Tel Aviv in June: was delayed without explanation multiple times when explanations were given, they were patently false required the police to come on board to remove the pilot from the cockpit gave minimal food vouchers ($21 per person) for a day+ delay gave passengers vouchers for a hotel that was half an hour away from the terminal didn't bother to arrange rooms at the hotel for the passengers The list goes on.

I expect this topic to get me a lot of flak. After all, everyone likes dumping on the airlines, including me. But hear me out. I fly a lot of miles every year, mostly in coach, sometimes in business. Most of the time, the journey is tiring and uneventful, sometimes it is annoying, and sometimes downright offensive. I regularly hear and read stories about the decline of comfort, service and value in air travel over the last 30 years.