Strategic Thinking -- Strategic Competition in Business, Politics, and Daily Life

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: Life is an incessant process of decision-making. What kind of work to do, how to manage a business, whom to marry, how to raise children, whether to compete for the position of CEO—these are all examples of such decisions. You are not making decisions in a vacuum. Instead, you are surrounded by other decision-makers just like you. While there is a lot of conflict, there are also many elements of cooperation. This book will help you learn to think strategically and increase your chances of winning in the game of life. This book succeeds through storytelling. Its academic roots lie in the "Strategy and Game Theory" course taught by Professor Dixit at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In short, it is the art of understanding how your opponents intend to defeat you and then defeating them. How to win a tennis game, how a minority can defeat a majority, why you should "love" your hated opponent, and more are all topics discussed. This is an emerging field of strategic science, composed of some simple fundamental principles. Readers from different backgrounds and industries who master these principles will elevate their ability to strategize and win. This book by Yale Professor Nash and Princeton Professor Dixit uses many vivid examples to illustrate the principles of strategic thinking in game theory to readers with no economics background. For example: When Nash graduated from college, he participated in a spinning-top game at a formal dance in Cambridge and led with a ratio of 700:300. With the grand prize within reach, he inexplicably ignored his advantage of being in the leading position and went first in the final round, only to lose everything. Later, he recalled that he had overdrunk and forgot the teachings of game theory: when leading, adopt a conservative strategy of allowing the opponent to go first. In this way, this top student of game theory lost to a woman who was originally in second place and had even suggested sharing the rewards (see Chapter 1 of this book). Life is an incessant process of decision-making. What kind of work to do, how to manage a business, whom to marry, how to raise children, whether to compete for the position of CEO—these are all examples of such decisions. You are not making decisions in a vacuum. Instead, you are surrounded by other decision-makers just like you. While there is a lot of conflict, there are also many elements of cooperation. This book will help you learn to think strategically and increase your chances of winning in the game of life. This book succeeds through storytelling. Its academic roots lie in the "Strategy and Game Theory" course taught by Professor Dixit at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In short, it is the art of understanding how your opponents intend to defeat you and then defeating them. How to win a tennis game, how a minority can defeat a majority, why you should "love" your hated opponent, and more are all topics discussed.