Learn About Fair Division
Fair division means dividing resources in a way that's provably fair for everyone involved. Since Hugo Steinhaus first described the “cake cutting” problem in 1944, researchers in Economics, Mathematics, and Computer Science have developed hundreds of methods for mathematically fair sharing.
Most of these methods are math theories but a few are quite useful for everyday things as well. For example, settling inheritance disputes, deciding fair rent between roommates, or splitting up chores. Some methods are even used to settle resource disputes between countries!
Should I be using these methods?
Maybe! Here are a few tools that use fair division methods:
- New York Times's Divide Your Rent Fairly
- This website's Resource Splitting Tool for divisible resources like cakes, time spans, physical space.
In everyday activities, it's probably best to talk things through and reach a mutual agreement with others. Fair division methods are most suited for situations where people can't agree but we still want everyone gets a fair share.
If you are curious to learn the logic behind provably fair solutions, I've developed a fun, interactive course. You'll get to explore the famous cake cutting problem, which is the heart of the fair division field. Please check it out!
Clarification
Just a quick note on sharing cake.
In the study of fair division we make some assumptions, mainly that everyone wants as much cake as possible so we need a method to ensure everyone gets a fair share.
Since people value parts of the cake differently, fair might mean one person gets a smaller piece but of a popular part of the cake. "Fair" doesn't mean equal sized pieces for everyone, it means equal value pieces for everyone.
The amazing thing is, even though everyone has their own subjective preferences about the cake, fair division methods always give everyone a piece worth 1⁄n of the cake value from their own perspective!
Keep in mind that this is an economic model, part of game theory. In real life you make more friends by being generous, especially if you're sharing a birthday cake!
Keeping this in mind, let's split another cake!