In Australia we had a similar game called Goldfields. Every kid loved it and playing it is one of my most fond memories of primary school. A fantastic way to teach history and economics at the same time.
Fat loss is really as simple as: calories in < calories out. There are finer details that determine how your body reacts to different meals, like dense, calorie rich food leaving you hungry for more and so you eat more, as opposed to voluminous, low calorie foods filling you up, but it really is as simple as that. No complex diet required. No exercise required.
It’s contrary to popular belief, but the truth is in the numbers. The calories burned in the most intense cardio session are negligible compared to your next meal, and with calorie trackers it’s something everyone can see now for themselves. Running is good for cardiovascular health and some people enjoy it for various reasons, but it’s not the tool for managing weight.
Interestingly, lifting weights over time does positively affects fat loss. Maintaining every additional pound of muscle takes more energy than maintaining a pound of body fat, and so having more muscle means you burn more calories by just breathing and existing. You don’t need to become a body building hulk for this effect to have a noticeable impact, either. Muscle is denser than fat. But, as with cardio, don’t bother measuring your calories burned for a weightlifting session. The benefit happens outside the gym.
If you get hungry between meals, drink more water (most people don’t drink enough, anyway) and have a lot of popcorn on hand to snack on. Popcorn is so voluminous yet has basically no calories, helping manage appetite.
The other big trick with weight is to develop consistent diet habits that you’ll follow consistently forever. Slow and steady wins the race. If you go hard and fast you might temporarily reach you goal but you won’t be able to maintain it. You need to develop habits that you’ll follow for life, because without it the fat will just come back later as your calories in go above your calories out.
Pick apart the video, sure, but the guy has a PhD in economics and lives and breathes the topic of discussion.
I thought it was made pretty clear it’s an oversimplified thought experiment, especially when it’s actually explained that there might or might not be hyperinflation.
Small world. I got to know the A05 guys really well when I put together a new team at UniMelb to do the same thing a few years ago. Even got some cringeworthy lines in this documentary with them.
GNU Octave is a basically identical language to MATLAB and, as the name suggests, is free. Identical to the point where most scripts will run using either platform without any issues or needing modification.
https://www.squakenet.com/game/goldfields/
I wouldn’t be surprised if kids still play it today.