by wasoxygen

For some reason, I thought this would be fun, or something that would be intuitive and easy to do in my head. Instead, it turns out that game theory is much more of a grind it out mathematical thing. It’s my fault; my expectations were off. Also, if I never hear about the Prisoners’ Dilemma again, it will be too soon. Enough with the Prisoner’s Dilemma! At this point, I want to choose “confess” just to get out of the conversation.

This month I read The Compleat Strategyst, described here as "a classic tome on the subject" and "too hard a read." The tone was light and amusing, with clever illustrated examples, but it was basically a textbook with problems at the end of each chapter, leaving no doubt that game theory is largely "a grind it out mathematical thing."

Given that an automated tool can solve game theory problems, learning how to analyze them is like playing with a slide rule: good for understanding the theory, but not a very practical skill.

Sample problem.

Scattered lessons in video format.

#learnnewthings schedule:

January 2016 – Water and growth in California

February – Wine

March – Game theory

April – Cryptography

May – Art history

June – The history of railroads in the U.S.

July – Oceanography

August – Football (strategy and theory)

September – Chaos theory

November – Linguistics