Gladiators, Pirates and Games of Trust

This short book provides a brisk but wide-ranging first look at Game Theory via numerous examples and fairly minimal mathematics. It is very clearly written, and includes both the best-known examples (Prisoners' Dilemma, Ultimatum Game) and concepts (Nash Equilibria) and many less standard games, though often without going into much depth. So I can highly recommend it as a "first look" at the subject.Does this style of "made up stories involving settings with simple explicit rules" actually help everyday life? Wise to be skeptical. More serious is the point that pretty much any observed behavior can be "explained" as rational within some invented game -- and a theory that explains everything explains nothing.One quibble: the oft-repeated story "dozens of her neighbors witnessed the murder of Catherine Genovese" is essentially false (see Wikipedia).

Simply Excellent !

Fantastic read. I found this book enlightening and entertaining all at once. This book is of original writing, well-researched, and not just a collection of other people's ideas. The book is funny and clever., teaching game theory with a lot of humour and without pain.

At first sight game theory would seem to have very little connection with everyday events and much more to do with psychologists conducting experiments with groups of volunteers. But it actually has a great deal to do with many of out interactions with other people, whether between two people or between groups of people. The principles also apply between nations and the author uses a frightening example of the Cuban Missile Crises.Reading this book can help you negotiating with others to get what you want in the most every day situations whether at home or at work. I found it interesting - though I don't pretend to understand the maths involved with some of the game analysis. Reading it did make me realise that I don't always work out what I want out of any situation which involves negotiation.There is a lot of information in this small book and it does repay careful study as it will help you to improve any situation which involves any sort of negotiation even if it only makes you realise that you have to decide in advance what your own bottom line might be.

Books like this are excellent guidelines on how education could be done in an engaging and effective manner. Instead of going into a quagmire of dense mathematical calculations, formulae and definitions the author manages to depict his subject as something very interesting and recognizable.The only potential downside is the lack of any advice or instruction about how to use the information in a more proactive way when dealing with certain situations, but it doesn't diminish the value of both the material and the writer's presentation skills.