Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

Rock, Paper, Scissors by Len Fisher (author of How to Dunk a Donut) tackles a seemingly unlikely pair: Game Theory and everyday life. In the book Fisher sets out to demonstrate how a little knowledge of game theory could help people work more cooperatively in their daily lives. He examines six common game theory scenarios (from the Prisoner's Dilemma to the Stag Hunt) and how they are like mundane problems such as distributing candy fairly at a child's birthday party.

Fisher's focus on the cooperative aspects of game theory is a breath of fresh air, since many contemporary books on the subject examine competition. Moreover Fisher's writing style, helpful diagrams, and humorous real-world experiments keep the reader entertained. The only obvious fault with the book is that it is a fairly basic treatment of game theory, which is to be expected from a popular primer. Nevertheless I would recommend this book to all of the economics wonks, math geeks, and the intellectually adventurous.

[LynzM]

1. Nice!

I like math, I like game theory, and stats, etc... this sounds like a neat read.

In return, can I suggest Outliers, and The Tipping Point, both by Malcolm Gladwell? Neat stuff on non-intuitive patterns about people, success, and the spread of ideas/fads/crime, etc.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. I loved The Tipping Point, will have to check out Outliers. Thanks!

[Richardo]

3. Also: Blink

Another great read by Malcolm.

[LynzM]

4. Cool.

Haven't read that one yet. There are a couple others from the footnotes in Outliers that I want to check out, but I couldn't remember them off the top of my head...