Life Lessons from Game Theory

Reviews / Votes

This book is simply brilliant. Tackling challenging ideas with great clarity and wit, Wooldridge shows that careful analysis of apparently simple games can help us understand momentous world events. I learned so much from reading it (including that my intuition is hopeless). * Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge * Wooldridge is like the teacher you wish you'd had: approachable, able to explain difficult things in simple terms, neither dauntingly highbrow nor off-puttingly cool, and genuinely enthusiastic about what he does * GUARDIAN * In Life Lessons from Game Theory, Michael Wooldridge achieves the near-impossible: he explains the complex, strategic structures of our world with masterful beauty and simplicity of writing that is rare for such a deeply researched work. This book is indeed an essential guide for newcomers and even for experts to get a grasp of game theory and it is truly a brilliant contribution to the field. * MILIND TAMBE, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University * This very readable book effortlessly covers a broad swath of core ideas in game theory, with a sprinkle of British humour. * EDITH ELKIND, Ginny Rometty Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University * People presenting game theory tend to fall into one of two camps. The one delves into its rather involved technical details, rendering it inaccessible to a broad public. The other offers lessons from of game theory in a way that doesn't make contact with the actual theory. Wooldridge's wonderful book does neither. It extracts key elements of game (and social choice) theory, presents them faithfully and yet accessibly, and describes their implications to real life in common sense terms. * YOAV SHOHAM, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University * There is no perfect strategy in life because it depends on what other people do. That's the insight - and the challenge - of game theory, one of logic's most fascinating disciplines. Michael Wooldridge's life lessons from game theory are fresh, clever and playful. An absorbing book. * MATT RIDLEY, author of THE ORIGINS OF VIRTUE and BIRDS, SEX AND BEAUTY *