Games Game Theory

Brian Clegg was always fascinated by Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation series of books, in which the future is predicted using sophisticated mathematical modelling of human psychology and behaviour. Only much later did he realise that Asimov's 'psychohistory' had a real-world equivalent: game theory. Originating in the study of probabilistic gambling games that depend on a random source—the throw of a dice or the toss of a coin—game theory soon came to be applied to human interactions: essentially, what was the best strategy to win, whatever you were doing?

Imagine being the person everyone trusts to make sound, smart choices. This book goes beyond theory—it’s a guide to real-life application. Master Game Theory delivers practical, down-to-earth insights that have already transformed countless lives and can change yours too. With this book, you’ll have an arsenal of strategic tools at your fingertips, giving you newfound confidence and control over every decision.

Games are everywhere: Drivers maneuvering in heavy traffic are playing a driving game. Bargain hunters bidding on eBay are playing an auctioning game. The supermarket's price for corn flakes is decided by playing an economic game. This Very Short Introduction offers a succinct tour of the fascinating world of game theory, a groundbreaking field that analyzes how to play games in a rational way.

Life is full of uncertainty. You don't know what lies ahead. But you can learn to control the controllable by using logic and reason. With the help of this book, you'll discover new ways to think about - and solve - problems more efficiently than ever before. Discover how strategic games model real-life behavior.

The corporate world is a complex game that must be mastered in order to achieve great success and rise up the organizational ladder. There are many rewards for the winners in this game-playing environment, and as with many things in life, the corporate world can be quite brutal for the losers in this competitive ecosystem of complicated relationships and diverse behaviors that must be effectively navigated in the course of playing the strategic game. Ergo, learn to play the game of office politics or suffer the unkind consequences of being destroyed on the corporate battlefield.

Should one enter a market where someone is in a monopoly position? When is going to the ER a good or a bad decision? Why is it never a good idea for rebels to concede? Practice Game Theory answers all these questions. Think about and solve problems more effectively applying strategic games models to real-life challenges. Learn how top world leaders analyze and assess their next best moves.

In Hidden Games, MIT economists Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli find a surprising middle ground between the hyperrationality of classical economics and the hyper-irrationality of behavioural economics. They call it hidden games. Reviving game theory, Hoffman and Yoeli use it to explain our most puzzling behaviour, from the mechanics of Stockholm syndrome and internalised misogyny to why we help strangers and have a sense of fairness.

Someone is siphoning funds from billionaire Zachary Barron's currency hedge fund. Intent on prosecuting the thief to the fullest extent of the law, he hires Katerina "Kat" Carter, the best forensic accountant in the business, to follow the money trail. Both are shocked when it leads to Zachary's father, Nathan. And he's just the tip of the iceberg. Nathan belongs to a shadowy organization with global ties and unimaginable resources.

Choices can be overwhelming. But you don’t need to give up on the things that you want just because you have a history of making the worst decisions. With the help of game theory, you will learn to adapt a more rational, effective, and analytical way to formulate your decisions and land the outcome that you’ve always wanted. More often than not, decisions based on merely feelings can lead to chaos and dissatisfaction. It will always be better to use your head in making a choice, especially in major deals such as in your business and personal affairs.

Complex problem solving is at the very top of the list of essential skills for career progression in the modern world. But how problem solving is taught in our schools, universities, businesses, and organizations comes up short. In Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything, you'll learn the seven-step systematic approach to creative problem solving developed in top consulting firms that will work in any field or industry, turning you into a highly sought-after, bulletproof problem solver who can tackle challenges at which others balk.

The Inner Game of music is that which takes place in the mind, played against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self doubt, and fear of failure. Using the same principles of "natural learning" W. Timothy Gallwey developed so successfully for tennis, golf, and skiing and applying them to his own field, noted musician Barry Green shows how to acknowledge and overcome these internal obstacles in order to bring a new quality to the experience and learning of music.

An accessible, light-hearted exploration into game theory. Haim Shapira describes what it is, why it is important, and how it can help us in our daily lives. This audiobook provides many humorous anecdotes and insightful examples of how our daily lives are affected by game theory. Game theory is the mathematical formalization of interactive decision-making - it assumes that each player's goal is to maximize his/her benefit, whatever it may be. Players may be friends, foes, political parties, states, or any entity that behaves interactively, whether collectively or individually.

We like to think of ourselves as rational. This idea is the foundation for classical economic analysis of human behavior, including the awesome achievements of game theory. But as behavioral economics shows, most behavior doesn’t seem rational at all - which, unfortunately, casts doubt on game theory’s real-world credibility. In Hidden Games, Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli find a surprising middle ground between the hyperrationality of classical economics and the hyper-irrationality of behavioral economics.

The aim of David McAdams’s Game-Changer is nothing less than to empower you with this wisdom - not just to win in every strategic situation (or “game”) you face but to change those games and the ecosystems in which they reside to transform your life and our lives together for the better.

The Great Game in Cuba uses the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution to examine the CIA's inner workings during the '50s and '60s. Detailing the agency's lies and deceits, Mellen paints a vivid behind-the-scenes picture of the CIA in Cuba after the Castro revolution: what it wanted and the lengths it was willing to go to in order to paralyze the opposition to Fidel Castro.

How well can you handle the complex situations that arise in live no-limit cash game play? Leading professional Jonathan Little excels at this form of poker. Listen to this book and learn how to master the intricacies of this fascinating game.

This audiobook introduces you to the Fundamental Theorem of Poker, its implications, and how it should affect your play. Other chapters discuss the value of deception, bluffing, raising, the slow-play, the value of position, psychology, heads-up play, game theory, implied odds, the free card, and semibluffing. Many of today's top poker players will tell you that this is the book that really made a difference in their play. That is, these are the ideas that separate the experts from the typical players.

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.

What can a quantum computer do? If we have a sequence of 30 zeroes and ones, it has about one billion of possible values. However, a classical computer can only be in one of these one billion states at the same time. A quantum computer can be in a quantum combination of all of those states, called superposition.

PLAYING WITH REALITY explores the riveting history of games since the Enlightenment, weaving an unexpected path through military theory, biology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and the future of democracy. As neuroscientist and physicist Kelly Clancy shows us, games have been deeply intertwined with the arc of history. War games shaped the outcomes of real wars in nineteenth and twentieth century Europe. Game theory warped our understanding of human behavior and brought us to the brink of annihilation.