Customer Reviews

The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of course. It is an updated version of their best selling book [Thinking Strategically]. I have taught an introduction to Game Theory course to college undergraduates for years and used their earlier version "Thinking strategically" as a textbook. Nalebuff and Dixit's effort on updating their classic became less than good news to college students. They put too much materials about their ABC documentary which was taken under Dr. Nalebuff's guidance while trying to put too much materials in otherwise a simple-clear book. I strongly recommend you to go to the bookstore and buy their earlier version "thinking strategically" rather than this 'confusing/messy" version.

If you like "game theory" -- or want to know what game theory is -- this could be the best book out there. Certainly there are more scholarly pieces on game theory, but this book is an A+ for its accessible writing, its use of examples that are interesting and a clear approach to point out how game theory comes into play every day for every person, whether we realize it or not. This book helps you understand the decision process in cooperative and competitive situations. It is better to know the "game" and how it is being played, than having the game played on you unwittingly. Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended, but more specifically for business applications, is Co-opetition, co-authored by Barry Nalebuff who is a co-author of The Art of Strategy.

A good book for a slow entry into the world of game theory. Some things are a bit wordy and hard to understand with few pictures/mathematical formulas, but nonetheless it is a good practical book for getting your feet wet.

Wide ranging and written with exceptional clarity. This is by far the best lay man's book about game theory I have come across. A worthy successor to "Thinking Strategically."

This book gives quality-time to my hero Garrett Hardin on "The Tragedy of the Commons" as the root of many problems. They even recommend Poundstone's "Prisoner's Dilemma", which would be my recommendation if you are just starting out, because no one can weave in the human interest to keep you reading like William Poundstone. Yet this book has way more technical content, presented accessibly, than "Prisoner's Dilemma".

I was interested in finding out the basics of game theory to determine if I wanted to learn more about it and this book was perfect for that purpose. They use concrete, down-to-earth examples to illustrate the basics of game theory and how they can be applied in real life. I immediately found myself examining everyday situations from a game theoretical perspective and thinking about how I "signal" to others. Very engrossing read and definitely worth the time.

Bonus - the "Trips to the Gym" (opportunities to think about and apply topics discussed in each chapter) and case studies were great exercises to help me check my understanding of each principle, which was tremendously helpful.

THE ART OF STRATEGY: A GAME THEORIST'S GUIDE TO SUCCESS IN BUSINESS AND LIFE follows a successful best-selling book on game theory, applying it to everyday life and business situations to move beyond the gamer's realm. Chapters use real-life examples and case studies to pair game theory with business interactions and personal goals, covering key principles of game theory, how to change and play the game to maximum advantage, and how to employ strategy in decision-making processes. Business libraries and general-interest holdings will find it a winner.

"The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life" by A. K. Dixit and B. J. Nalebuff is one of the best introductions in game theory, which is defined as the systematic analysis of strategic interactions. The book is differently structured from the previous edition but still a nice read. The topics are covered in a non-perfunctory manner and there is a clear bridge between theory and practice with enough applications to elicit further digging by the interested reader. The cases are quite diverse (pop culture, TV, movies, sports, politics, and history) and the non-technical style is appealing to a large audience. The book is a good resource even for the technical game theorists in need of nice metaphors or examples aimed at decreasing the complexity of presentations.

This book covers the Game Theory very well and is an excellent text for beginners. What this book made clear to me is that Game Theory is not just about strategy only. It is rather an explanation for behavior of people in different situations. In general, it is a very big and vast topic and it won't be justified to expect one book to cover it all. The authors of The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life have made a great attempt to provide an overview of the various aspects and situations.

Actually, the first chapter itself is a good summary of the whole book and is aptly titled "Ten Tales of Strategy". In subsequent chapters, they develop these ten strategic moves with examples. A few of the strategies discussed include, art of backward reasoning, prisoner's dilemma, dominant strategy, etc.

The last chapter of the book is about case studies, which further help to increase the knowledge of concepts. They could have made the book better by picking up some more examples from real life with business and corporations, since they help more to relate and out these theories in context.

Very entertaining intro to game theory. Some of the materials can be little confusing but overall, they are easy to follow and understand.