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59th out of 237 books
—
394 voters
Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life
The international bestseller — don't compete without it! A major bestseller in Japan, Financial Times Top Ten book of the year, Book-of-the-Month Club bestseller, and required reading at the best business schools, Thinking Strategically is a crash course in outmaneauvering any rival. This entertaining guide builds on scores of case studies taken from business, sports, the
...morePaperback, 416 pages
Published
April 17th 1993
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published March 1991)
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This is how a book should be written.
It is a fantastic introduction to game theory for the intelligent layman. It covers strategic decision making for innumerable scenarios, including but not limited to: poker, political campaigns, takeover bids, business negotiations, baseball pitches, bargaining, labor relations, tax audits, and nuclear war. The authors strike the perfect blend of in-depth coverage of the technical topics, like Bayes theorem, with concrete examples illustrating the concepts. T...more
It is a fantastic introduction to game theory for the intelligent layman. It covers strategic decision making for innumerable scenarios, including but not limited to: poker, political campaigns, takeover bids, business negotiations, baseball pitches, bargaining, labor relations, tax audits, and nuclear war. The authors strike the perfect blend of in-depth coverage of the technical topics, like Bayes theorem, with concrete examples illustrating the concepts. T...more
Oh game theory! I agree with the fact that knowledge of how to play games matters but this book was more academic than mainstream. Economics is a dismal science though, and this book does not even make an effort examining moral implications of many games.
Things I learned:
- To improve the effectiveness of your backhand in tennis, improve your forehand so your opponent respects (and plays more) against your forehand.
- When you're #1 in the industry, let the competitors drive the innovation and imi...more
Things I learned:
- To improve the effectiveness of your backhand in tennis, improve your forehand so your opponent respects (and plays more) against your forehand.
- When you're #1 in the industry, let the competitors drive the innovation and imi...more
Not being familiar with game theory, and being someone who finds a lot of mathematics intimidating, I took a lot from reading this book. I liked following the logic the authors use, which is expressed very clearly and step by step.
Of course, they reduce all their problems, drawn from all ares of life (politics, business, sports, etc.) to a 2x2 matrix (occasionally the models get more complex), whereby there are two players who place a fixed value (or at least an ordered ranking of preferences)...more
Of course, they reduce all their problems, drawn from all ares of life (politics, business, sports, etc.) to a 2x2 matrix (occasionally the models get more complex), whereby there are two players who place a fixed value (or at least an ordered ranking of preferences)...more
It's not one of those 'motivation' books, the caption for the book is misleading. Application of strategies in all walks of life-sports, casinos, business, politics, and everyday life-using case studies are presented in this book. Although majority of the case studies are explained based on rudimentary concepts in game theory, there are instances of using probability and psychology concepts as well. Overall, a very good no non-sense read, which is not very thought provoking but interesting in mo...more
A primer on game theory - it attempted to explain the main concepts in lay language, without going too much into the maths. Found portions difficult as some examples were drawn from baseball and american football, which I'm not familiar with. Still, there are many other interesting examples that will warp your brain. Some of the mathematical explanations were also beyond me. My main grouse with game theory is that it assumes that players are logical, which is apparently not true all of the time....more
Nice introduction to game theory. Enaging and easy to read, though not as deep as David M. Kreps'Game Theory and Economic Modelling, but still very insightful. Ideal for general readers or undergraduate students in their first years of study in the social sciences.
I read this book as part of an effort to develop my professional skills in this area. Gratefully, the book was unexpectedly very good. Many interesting examples are used to explain game theory in a fascinating way. There was some repeat of how explainations were conducted, which dragged the pace a bit in places, but for a book on what could be a boring treatise on strategic thinking and game theory, I can enthusiastically recommend this tome.
It should have been titled the same but with the prefix: "A General Introduction to"-
Sometimes, to cram load of examples into one book doesn't make it readable - but irritating, to me, anyway.
Another thing that disappointed me with this book is that it constantly trying to get around the math without acknowledging it directly and the result is excessive use of words over a simple matter, and to put things worst - there is not even an appendix that explores the far reaches of the subject to those...more
Sometimes, to cram load of examples into one book doesn't make it readable - but irritating, to me, anyway.
Another thing that disappointed me with this book is that it constantly trying to get around the math without acknowledging it directly and the result is excessive use of words over a simple matter, and to put things worst - there is not even an appendix that explores the far reaches of the subject to those...more
Wonderful read if you are curious about game theory, and would like to start learning it! The authors nicely cover different techniques with case studies and clear explanations and make it real fun! And also allows you to understand what really happened here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/golden...
http://www.businessinsider.com/golden...
If a little math doesn't scare you and you enjoy the "nerd non-fiction" sub-genre, this is a fascinating book. It's pretty straight forward in that it introduces some fundamentals of game theory and makes them pretty easily accessible to non-mathematicians.
I recommend it if politics, programming or board games interest you.
I recommend it if politics, programming or board games interest you.
Last year I watched an excellent series of lectures by Ben Polack on game theory, and this was listed as one of the companion books for the course. Though the book focuses more on business/political strategy and less on economic markets or biological populations, this was an enjoyable and informative read. It didn't cover any new ground that the course didn't, so it felt like more of a re-read, though it was nice to have the chance to refresh my knowledge of the subject matter. I recommend the b...more
The book is a must read for anyone. It gives basic tools for rational thinking and strategic manouvering in everyday life. Game theory was made easy through the case studies presented throughout the book and the last chapter.
I highly recommend the book
I highly recommend the book
A good, understandable, applicable explanation of many basic concepts in game theory. It gets a bit long, and you may come out the other side a touch more Machiavellian.
The book was very well written and the subject matter is interesting, but the lessons learned from the book aren't as applicable to real life as I would have hoped.
Wonderful book on game theory. The examples from history, literature and from every day life make the discussions lively and entertaining. Mathematics and complex reasoning is kept to a minimum and conversational, easy-to-follow logic is generally adopted. The case studies at the end of each chapter helps to sum up understanding and we can easily breeze through the book with the assurance that the final chapter of case studies will refresh any idea that we might be unclear on. All in all, a grea...more
Loved this book, picked it up after a recommendation from the Yale Game Theory coursework. Although the book lacks math, the concepts from the theory are beautifully explained. The authors try their best to ensure that the reader appreciates the strategies, they do this by citing a real world application (mostly from history) of the technique. Think political science (how a candidate must structure his speech to convey his support for certain policies) or how countries negotiate their war treati...more
Overall, I give this three stars. If goodreads asked, rate it as a political science text, I would have given it five stars.
Hated it when forced to read it for class. A reread 8 years later at leisure and the key points become much clearer.
A light version of my Strategic Decision Analysis class at Goizueta. Great examples from history/real life.
Good for game theory, some good examples and patient step-by-step run throughs of problems.
A should-read book on innovation for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.
Entertaining, non-technical discussion of game theoretical themes. A little repetitive in the end.
This is a really good intro to game theory.
Excellent basic introduction to game theory
for a school book it wasn't terrible. that's all
Tough going but a good overview of game theory as it applies to strategy.
This is a nice intro primer to game theory. Its well written, and easy to understand. It doesn't go into mathematical formalization, or anything advanced though, so if you've got some exposure to game theory already, this is probably not going to give you much more insight.
This was recommended to me by one of my professors. In his words it's a "must read" for anybody in business/economics. I'm not far in enough to say, but it seems pretty decent for anybody looking for a primer on Game Theory. Oh... I should mention that it IS written for the layperson.
A phenomenal book to describe negotiation and strategy at many levels in a mathematical and logical way. The analysis and insight, and the applicability of these gems make this book unique in the world of broad, vague and esoteric strategy tomes.
This a very complete treatise on strategic thinking that also has the advantage of being very accesible to the casual reader. Unfortunately it could use a new edition with more current example, as those included seem a bit dated.
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Dixit was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1944, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was educated at St. Xavier’s College (Bombay), Corpus Christi College (Cambridge) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and professor at the University of Warwick, before joining Princeton in 1981...more
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“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' In other words, love is a dominant strategy.”
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“Khrushchev first denounced Stalin's purges at the Soviet Communist Party's 20th Congress. After his dramatic speech, someone in the audience shouted out, asking what Khrushchev had been doing at the time. Khrushchev responded by asking the questioner to please stand up and identify himself. The audience remained silent. Khrushchev replied: "That is what I did, too.”
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