Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life

by Len Fisher

Praised by Entertainment Weekly as “the man who put the fizz into physics,” Dr. Len Fisher turns his attention to the science of cooperation in his lively and thought-provoking book. Fisher shows how the modern science of game theory has helped biologists to understand the evolution of cooperation in nature, and investigates how we might apply those lessons to our own society.

In a series of experiments that take him from the polite confines of an English dinner party to crowded supermarkets, congested Indian roads, and the wilds of outback Australia, not to mention baseball strategies and the intricacies of quantum mechanics, Fisher sheds light on the problem of global cooperation. The outcomes are sometimes hilarious, sometimes alarming, but always revealing.

A witty romp through a serious science, Rock, Paper, Scissors will both teach and delight anyone interested in what it what it takes to get people to work together.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Mathematics, Psychology, Economics, Business, Social Science

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lively and full of non-technical examples... but too shallow unless it is the first book on the subject that you are reading. Get a better book if you are serious about the subject, there are some very good ones out there.
Not worth a full review I guess.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Game theory investigates the motives and dilemmas of social interactions relative to selfishness and cooperation. As we understand game theory we can increase our chances of finding satisfying resolutions by adopting new strategies or even by just having a clearer view of social dilemmas and their underlying causes. In his book on the subject, Rock Paper Scissors, Len Fisher gives the following ten tips:

1. Keep the same strategy if you’re winning, shift strategies if you lose.
2. Bring a third player in. They can be a known negotiator or a known cheater – either way it helps.
3. Set up reciprocity. Knowing that you’ll deal with people after a conflict can increase the incentive to cooperate.
4. Limit future options or provide incentives. This shows that you are committed to the best possible outcomes.
5. Offer trust. It’s simple, but it can be effective.
6. Create a situation from which neither party can escape from without loss.
7. Use side-payments to maintain cooperation.
8. Know the seven deadly dilemmas and avoid the worst outcomes:
a. The Prisoner’s Dilemma – all must cooperate or all fail.
b. The Tragedy of the Commons (a series of Prisoner's Dilemmas) –self-interest prevents cooperation despite impending long-term failure.
c. The Free Rider problem - people taking advantage of a community resource without contributing to it.
d. Chicken/Brinkmanship - each side tries to push the other as close to the edge as they can, with each hoping that the other will back down first.
e. The Volunteer’s Dilemma - someone must make a sacrifice on behalf of the group, but if no one does, then everyone loses out.
f. The Battle of the Sexes - two people have different preferences, but each would rather share the other's company than pursue their own preference alone.
g. Stag Hunt - cooperation between members of a group gives them a good chance of success in a risky, high-return venture, but an individual can win a guaranteed but lower reward by breaking the cooperation and going it alone.
9. Work to create transparent processes that are inherently fair.
10. Favor smaller groups, it’s easier to foster trust and cooperation

[Kater Cheek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Game Theory is one of those subjects I only know a little bit about, and this book promised to lead me to understand it with a cheerful, pop-science writing style. In a way, it succeeded, in that it's peppered with personal anecdotes, some of which are quite enjoyable.
But as far as getting me to understand and be enthusiastic about game theory, it failed. I already understand about brinkmanship and the prisoner's dilemma, and how rock-paper-scissors work, so Fisher's descriptions added little. In fact, in some ways, they made it worse. He has several charts which explain the outcomes of various decisions made in the prisoner's dilemma, and, try as I might, I could not make any sense of the charts. Maybe it was a typo? I don't know. I also would have liked to understand the concept of quantum game theory, and about how he came to the numbers of the formula used in the Nash barganing theory. I read the passage over several times, and didn't understand it, which is quite disappointing, as I am neither completely ignorant of game theory nor am I unintelligent. It's just that he assumed we knew what was going on, and skipped past with only the briefest of descriptions.
Another problem I had with this book was the structure. It had numerous footnotes and text blocks that sometimes went on for several pages, forcing me to flip back and forth, and lose my train of thought about what I'd been reading. In short, while the anecdotes were entertaining, they couldn't overcome the fact that Fisher's explanations weren't clear and lucid enough for me.

[Kaara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a sort of layman's explanation of game theory and how game theory, which is generally associated with competition, can be employed to promote cooperation among individuals, communities, and nations. Sounds promising--I like learning, I like cooperation, let's learn about new ways toward cooperation!

Unfortunately, the author simultaneously gave explanations too large-scale and gave examples too small-scale. What I mean is, the premise, reasoning, and graphic illustrations of most of the game theory dilemmas were generally not broken down enough or clear enough for me to really understand them to my satisfaction, while the examples he gave were so simplified and in some cases silly that rather than clarify things, they just frustrated me. For example, you can't gauge people's trust by putting a coat down in front of women confronting puddles and seeing if they'll accept your offer to use the coat as a Queen Elizabeth did! They are responding to you suspiciously because that's an anachronistic and just plain weird thing to do in a 21st century urban center among strangers, not because they are mistrustful! Hellloooo, basic sense of social norms.

Many of Fisher's evidence or examples, were based on social experiments he performed on acquaintances, strangers, or guests of parties he was invited to. As a researcher, he should know that personal anecdotes do not evidence make--and one hopes he might soon be informed that invitations to parties might dwindle if he keeps acting on his penchant for asking annoying questions or favors of the guests. In fact, I have to say in many cases I simply didn't believe his examples actually occurred--they were so simplistic that I assumed he made them up to make a point. This is especially frustrating because I can 100% see how game theory dilemmas DO provide the framework for almost every interaction people have. There was no need to turn to personal anecdotes of no research significance and dubious verity. In my mind, Fisher lazed out. I want to see studies. I want to see examples taken from the news, from history, from something beyond his small life. And I want properly referenced footnotes.

The other thing that bothered me, and this might not be the author's fault but simply be the way of game theory, was the complete lack of interest in or acknowledgment of individual psyches. There was a slight nod to the effect a person's cultural milieu has on his behavior, but nothing about a person's personality. Not everyone is going to act the same in a Prisoner's Dilemma or a Stag Hunt, because people's natural inclinations toward honesty, toward their community participation, toward sociability, toward all sorts of things, differ, from person to person. Game theory, or at least Fisher's depiction of game theory, doesn't seem to take this in to account at all.

All that said, I did learn something from the book. You do start understanding the world in a somewhat different way when you understand these dilemmas. There have been several times the past week or so, particularly in regards to this absolutely heinous set of condo association issues, when I've said to myself, "Stag Hunt! This is just like the Stag Hunt!" I've also been thinking a bit more about the solutions he offers, though for the most part they are really silly (he suggests a friend of his who is a police officer brings a dog with him to question suspects as a "neutral third party," and this shows the value of neutral third party. Um! A police dog is NOT a neutral third party! I'd call this tactic something significantly simpler and less cooperation-oriented, such as "displaying power" or "intimidating"!). In all, I guess I'm glad I have a basic knowledge of game theory, but was expecting a book with more solid explanations, research, and examples.

[Dmitri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update: Instead of this book, you should read The Compleat Strategyst by J.D. Williams. It's nearly 60 years old and everything Rock, Paper, Scissors wishes it could be. Don't be put off by it being published by Rand- it's actually very easy to understand and surprisingly, very funny. Also The Compleat Strategyst is available for free in PDF form from Rand's website.

Original review: Holy crap! While I was interested in the first 100 pages or so, when the author actually wrote about game theory (albeit in a simplistic pedestrian manner), the last hundred have been excruciating. Honestly, I'm about 40 pages from the end, and I try not to leave books unfinished, but I just don't think I can go on.

The first 60 pages of the second half have been about trust and how to elicit such. But the author has taken advantage of my trust in him to write a book about game theory. The result is that this book has made me angry!

My purpose in reading this book was to brush up on the basics before reading something a little heavier- but I could have just watched Beautiful Mind if I was in need of a time waster.

Maybe, if one has not had any introduction to game theory, and they just want to know what it is, then perhaps this book could help. But reading the wikipedia article on it would be ten times more informative.

[Ami Iida · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this book the contents are not accompanied with respect title .
It is inadequate mathematical commentary.
I recommend you to read other game theory's books.

[Minh Nhật · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*(review cho vui thế thôi chứ ko khuyên mọi người đọc cuốn này, đọc Thế lưỡng nan của người tù thì hơn)

đầu năm làm cái review mặn mặn :)), cuốn này viết chán(+ cảm giác là dịch dở nữa) trừ cái note ở dưới.

Nói tới lý thuyết trò chơi thì hay nhắc tới nan đề tù nhân(the prisoner's dilemma) và phân tích của nó là Nash equilibrium. Nhưng có 1 vấn đề sớm hơn, dể nắm bắt hơn mà thú vị không kém là bài toán chia bánh.

Có 1 chiếc bánh, cách nào chia cho 2 người mà ai cũng cảm thấy là công bằng.

Giả dụ bạn nghĩ mình cắt ra làm "đôi" là công bằng rồi, nhưng thử nghĩ trường hợp khó hơn là đứa kia rất mất dạy, trừ khi là phần của nó từ 51% trở lên nó mới chịu, nhưng bạn cũng là một đứa cứng rắn không kém. Và đó hẳn nhiên là kết quả thường xảy ra trong thực tế, mọi người bất hợp tác với nhau.

Giải pháp thì ko rõ được ai đưa ra, nhưng được John von Neumann nhắc tới trong cuốn sách đầu tiên về game theory là Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Theo đó cách chia hợp lý nhất là một đứa có quyền chia và đứa còn lại được quyền chọn -> bingo !

Theo đó von Neumann đưa ra định lý miniMax, diễn nôm ra là trong trò chơi tổng bằng không, thì tốt nhất là tối thiểu hóa thiệt hại(tối đa), nghĩa nếu bạn là đứa cắt bánh thì bạn sẽ cắt sao cho thiệt về mình(luôn là phần "nhỏ hơn" trong 2 phần) là nhỏ nhất. Đặc điểm của cái được gọi là trò chơi, chính là bạn phải suy nghĩ như là đối thủ cũng có suy nghĩ như bạn -> nghe hack não quá

Quay lại cuốn sách, thì tác giả có cái đáng kể là nêu vấn đề với 3 người chơi. Giả dụ như trò búa-kéo-bao.

Giả như có 1 đứa vô cùng ngây thơ, nó luôn ra 1 trong ba thứ như luôn ra búa, thì hẳn nếu chỉ 2 người chơi phần thắng sẽ luôn về bạn, nhưng nếu có 3 cũng lý tính như bạn thì cuối cùng trò chơi lại rơi vào thế lưỡng nan.

Tiếc là phần này chỉ được cuốn sách nói lướt qua nên hơi thất vọng -,-, mấy phần còn lại thì cũng đã đọc đâu đó rồi

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is similar to Freakonomics in that it explores theoretical economics situations using real life examples, but shows to me the value in having an actual journalist do the writing and an economist provide the data and the stories. There are too many anecdotes from Fisher's life and the book is repetitive. Decent ideas though.

[Dzung Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Đọc lần 1 - 06/05/2025
2. Cuốn sách bị hạn chế do người dịch không thông thạo ngôn ngữ gốc, giải thích ví dụ không sát nghĩa.
3. Lý thuyết trò chơi là cuộc sống hàng ngày được cụ thể hoá thành mô hình nhưng chưa đạt đến mô hình toán học, là lý luận học của Á ĐÔng qua lời răn, châm ngôn.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-Mathematical Introduction to Game Theory and the Generating Co-operative Behaviour

What makes this book so enjoyable is that it is densely loaded with interesting anecdotes and examples. This is popular math/science writing at its best and the material is easy enough to understand without any technical background. At times the lack of filling in that detail is annoying. For example he (author name) writes about a three way duel called a "truel", where the A who shoots first has a 1/3 chance of hitting his target, the B has a 2/3 chance and the C will hit his target 100% of the time. If he shoots B and succeeds he's a dead man, because A always hits his target. If he shoots A and misses then B and C may take him out, but if he hits A there is a 2/3 chance that B will hit A and so forth. So what is A's best strategy? The author gives a surprising solution however he leaves without the mathematical discourse or even graphical display to convince you of the conclusion. (Hint - get a large sheet of paper and draw a tree showing all possible outcomes. Remember that C is a perfect shot, so at most the truel will go two rounds. Look at all possible outcomes first before taking into account that each truelist will choose her best chance for survival. )

The core idea of Game Theory is a payoff matrix showing the possible cost/benefits of making a choice. Fisher starts with a two player interaction in a single encounter where neither player is aware of the other's choice in advance - which was the basis of John Nash's initial discovery - most readers will recall the Acadamy Awarded movie "A Beautiful Mind". However when you introduce some variation in the scenario the behaviour changes. If you add more than two players (ie: the Truel, systems of alliances between nations) third parties act as a spoiler that influences the actions of the others. Fisher also looks at the work of Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation ( I consider it one of the key "must-read" books in social work or political science, bar none) where there are more than one interaction so that both history and reputation of the players are taken into account. Lastly there is a final progression where each player has varying degrees of certainty as to the other player's choices - Fisher theorizes that this may be made possible by quantum computing (not cheating - but that would have made an interesting topic too.) and the principle of "entanglement".

Recommended for teachers and students and a general audience because. It's entertaining and informative as to the relevance of mathematical models to everyday life. Personally I would have like more details but for that I'd recommend Anatol Rapoport's classic Two-Person Game Theory which I think I'll repurchase having lost my copy to my eldest brother. The layout of some of the boxed side discussions in the book were a bit distracting as they occasionally ran on for a few pages and they should be have been set in smaller type or relegated to the page notes at the back. In general those supplemental notes were quite good but I found the lack of two specific follow ups frustrating: He also refers to a video showing the results of Axelrod's work - it would be nice to know where one could find it; on pp 121 he talks about a new model used by the United States government to auction off radio frequencies netting over 100 billion in EXTRA revenue - but he only talks about the results and leaves out an explanation of how that model worked or a comparison to less effective techniques used in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

[Bestand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other reviewers, I found this book light on details. I was also misled to believe that it was primarily a book on game theory. Having now read it and been disappointed in its game theory content, I can appreciate its value as a junction between game theory and political science.

The author has clearly tried to document his attempt to learn about game theory as a tool to more effective human interaction. He hints at possible personal reasons for this. I project onto him a need to form better governments or organize collective action to solve problems of benefit to all humanity--poverty, climate change, pollution, biodiversity, obesity, etc. If the book fails to resolve these lofty aims, it is due to the immensity of the problem. I assume the author came to no definite conclusions, and this book is the result.

I appreciate his personal account of his learning, but (I hope) he learned more than he covers in the book. I am left at the end with a hope to use game theory to grease the social cogs but without the mathematical machinery to do so. I had hoped that this might be the kind of book that a math class could read, and I think it's probably at a high school level. My fear that it contains too little math is mitigated somewhat by the well-documented endnotes. High school students could probably find something interesting to read and explain out of all the examples. I would, however, appreciate a pedagogical guide or bibliography to game theory.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A non-mathematical discussion of how game theory applies to daily dilemmas and negotiations, this was a surprisingly easy read. Fisher's explanations are consistently clear (no facility with higher math required) and his writing light-hearted and entertaining. From the many examples provided from Fisher's personal life, it seems one invites him to a dinner party at the risk of turning the evening into an experiment in game theory. (Personally, I think that'd be a great way to enliven an evening, but then I spent my last dinner party discussing the implications of the forensic DNA typing I'd performed on one of my guests and her five siblings. My idea of entertainment may be suspect.)

I particularly enjoyed the discussion of computer models as a method for examining which strategies work best for determining the optimal outcome between two (or more) self-interested parties.

I would perhaps have liked a more detailed look at the applications of game theory on a political and global scale. The percentage of the book devoted to introducing the subject and personal exemplars seemed to overwhelm the last couple chapters, which is where Fisher ultimately got around to providing concrete suggestions for daily applications.

But this is a minor nitpick. I'm hoping to track down Fisher's other books as well.

[Andrew Kaiser]

No stars don't mean a bad book; it just means a bad system for rating one.

Fisher's approach to game theory was scientific, but without its esotericism. The subject is no longer overwhelming, and I now see game theory in my life everyday. For example, I want people to hear my music, but not if they don't like it. Strange, this game theory.

[Zhijing Jin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this book to understand what social conditions make people naturally do good, or make people have to compete at something and hurt each other. It's basically the "reward" (in the mechanism design) that drives all actors in an environment to do certain actions. If we want to break some scenario (e.g., encourage people to be more climate aware), we need to redesign the rewards.

[Nathan Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book! It took me three check-outs and $2.40 in late fees, but I finally finished it. Well worth the time/money.

[Olesia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A wry fascinating tour of one of the most momentous sciences of our time” – says William Poundstone about Len Fisher’s bool “Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game theory in everyday life”. I would definetly recommend this book if you are like me – a university student who just started learning aboyt the Game theory. This book descrides what is the nash trap, how to deal with N-person stimulations, what to ise out of perfect and imperfect information. It also teaches abot decision: simultaneous and sequantials, and a great deal about rationality as well. Through various examples the author describes where do mentioned situations occur, how to deal with them and basically how to win the “Rock, Paper, Scissors Game” with rival companies and life in general. Fun and witty situations described in the book will live in your head forever after you read this book. Even though I strongly suggest this book to my peers, on the other hand (I mean, we are economists after all, the are no one-seded opinions in our lives) if you are already familiar with the topic – the book will be way too easy andprimitive for you. If you wanna deepen your knowledge on Game Theory, avoid this book 😊 The author himself suggests that his book in stretched into a book, when instea it could have been a few-page paper. But there should be a book for everyone – shouldn’t it?
Withot further ado – if never heard of Prisoners dilemma, or you wanna calculate the proper distribution of gifts at a kid’s party, or get to know more about Indian crazy streets – dive into this book and enjoy your new and improved life afterwards!

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would have worked better as a longform magazine article. Fisher talks about game theory and how a better understanding of it can lead us to promote cooperation instead of competition. That's a nice theory, and he does a decent job of explaining it, but I don't think there is enough meat in this subject matter to justify 200 pages.

Fisher quotes Steven Postrel at one juncture. The quote and Fisher's explanation is itself a good encapsulation of the entire book. "'Game theory is a toolbox for constructing useful models, rather than an empirically substantive theory. Its power comes from imposing logical discipline on the stories we tell.' In other words, the science is not a tool for controlling the world so much as a tool for helping us to understand it in a new and informative way. It is a guide to decision making that gives us pointers to what is really going on, not an auto-decision maker into which we just feed the facts."

Given that, the rest of the book is really just commentary. Fisher's conclusion, and here I agree, is that it is better to find ways to cooperate in almost every situation. When confronted with someone who won't cooperate, Fisher posits that it is okay to protect one's own interests; particularly if doing so may lead back to cooperation. In that sense the book has some useful tips for promoting cooperation. These can be found in the last chapter.

The sentence above as a thesis, with a few examples and explanations, and the last chapter as a conclusion would have made this a very interesting magazine article.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're wondering when to start reading your next book about math, I recommend T-minus zero for this one. Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life kept me entertained and intrigued as I read. This text has far-reaching applications, from small group dynamics and school-yard bullies to government policy and even climate change.

As one of the first books on Game Theory that I have read, I found great value in Fisher's approach. He frequently boils down his ideas using the first-person perspective to humanize and contextualize it for the reader. I might have had trouble if he started referring to self-enforcing strategies right off the bat, but when he discussed the classic cake dilemma of "I-cut-you-choose," I was instantly brought back to many moments in my childhood where this very strategy was put into practice.

I do have to agree with other reviewers that the book left me wanting more, as it gives a great overview of the seven basic social dilemmas without fully fleshing out the specific ways they have been applied in the past. But one of the most striking takeaways of this book is the mathematically supported idea that trusting in my fellow man is a winning strategy at heart. If nothing else, I'd recommend reading this to gain insight on that perspective.

[Alice Wardle · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life' by Len Fisher is a decent book for an introduction to game theory. I read 'Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships' by Eric Berne prior to reading Fisher's book, however I would recommend people to read them the other way around.

Fisher introduces the basics of what a game is and what some popular games are. It is also very fun to read about the author's own experiences in his life and how game theory can be attributed to them. The stories make understanding the concepts considerably easier.

There are only a few times where he is explaining games or solutions to problems where the message is very unclear. Instead of resolution, there is confusion. For example, in the chapter 'I cut, and you choose', a problem is described in which a man who has three wives passes away, and there is a debate about how much of his estate each wife should get. The solution is explained in an unclear way. Despite reading through this passage several times, I gained no further understanding and was forced to move on. There are also, sometimes, omitted details from the text, which means finding out more information about what is being said is limited.

Nevertheless, the book is certainly good for an Introducing to the concept of game theory, and you also get to know about the history of it and its pioneers.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess this would serve as good 'popular' introduction to Game Theory. Concepts like Nash Equilibrium, Prisoner's Dilemma, Tragedy of the Commons and others are discussed with many 'real world' examples. Although many are not very real at all and simply little exercises he devises to try and explain the concepts. Aspects of these theories exist throughout human society and he does pretty good job showing how in wide variety of settings. Chapter 3 with the Seven 'Deadly' Dilemmas provides a pretty good overview--the aforementioned Prisoner's and Tragedy plus Free Rider, Chicken, Battle of the Sexes, Volunteer's Dilemma and Stag Hunt. Much of normal and often not-so-normal human interaction is played out within these dynamics which will be familiar but perhaps not much reflected upon. Odd to think that an entire science has grown up around it but such is our increasingly automated and complex world. The chapter on Quantum Game Theory was actually pretty fascinating whilst being somewhat disturbing as well. If we need Quantum Mechanics and Computing to figure our our interactions in the future sort of takes the 'fun' out of being human yet people may have access such technologies on their phones sooner than I'd like to think.

[Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a breezy read at around 200 pages. I was looking for a non-technical introduction to game theory having zero knowledge of the topic. I think it served my purpose. The book is more like 2 halves, the first half goes into the seven deadly dilemmas and nash equilibrium and the later half into rest of the stuff.

The authors attempt to provide a meaningful new insight as we approach the end is perhaps why the book doesn't stand out. The summary is not substantial or significant. The last chapter on quantum game theory poses more questions than answers - it doesn't explain anything at all, isn't deep enough and doesn't talk about to what problems will it apply and what it won't. It felt like a magic bullet.

The author tries to follow the adage of providing personal real-life examples to connect with the readers. But to me, most if not all example felt forced and made up. Will I really believe that the author hoarded most of the food at a dinner and was offer the plate in last turn in the next pass? It would have been better to provide more interesting and natural examples even hypothetical thought exercises or fall back to case studies / experiments. There are some example provided from nature which in contrast are really interesting. Hence, my point.

[Trần Chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Không đánh giá cao khả năng ứng dụng những lý thuyết trong sách vào đời sống, chỉ thích hợp để làm quen với lý thuyết trò chơi và một số các thế lưỡng nan trong cuộc sống. Sau khi đọc xong quyển sách này, bạn có thể nhận ra những thế lưỡng nan để rồi tìm cách tránh nó hoặc giải quyết nó. Những cách giải quyết mà tác giả đưa ra thật ra cũng áp dụng được nhưng nó kiểu như đã đồng hóa với cuộc sống con người. Chẳng hạn như việc 2 người đi ngược hướng sẽ dễ xảy ra trình trạng 2 người cùng nhường đường lặp đi lặp lại tạo nên một thế lưỡng nan thú vị, vậy giải quyết như thế nào? Thông thường chúng ta sẽ buộc phải lên tiếng bảo người kia đi trước – nếu lịch sự, hoặc yêu cầu họ nhường đường, tác giả gọi nó là giải pháp "đàm phán", vậy là chúng ta đã áp dụng giải pháp đó một cách vô thức mà không cần đọc quyển sách này. Tuy vậy cũng nên đọc nếu muốn có cơ sở kiến thức để đi sâu hơn vào lý thuyết trò chơi.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I came across this book a few months back. It sounded like a good intro to game theory, making it a bit of fun. While I have a better understanding of game theory basics, it wasn’t as fun as the back cover hinted.

My take on game theory is the study of human behavior using mathematical models. Here the author takes to be the capacity of humans to help each other. He wants to demonstrate how humans cooperate and why they don’t at times.

I will give the author props for using himself as experimental subject in many of the chapters. Lots of dinner party conversations. His experiment with putting a jacket over a puddle for a lady to walk over was enlightening, highlighting trust.

I now see that other books I’ve read about human behavior were utilizing game theory, but they didn’t call it out as such. Now I have a better clue. I thought it would be more fun or filled with more humorous tales.

[Julia Farthing Kitay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a sudden interest in game theory, as it is a science that studies situations where individuals come up with the best plan of attack to get the most benefit. Game theory is a type of mathematics, but it can be applied to lots of different fields, such as economics, biology, computer science, philosophy, and even international diplomacy. The book "Rock, Paper, Scissors" has some great anecdotes by the author, but I'm still stuck with a lot of questions. For instance, what is "Nash Equilibrium?" "Are there better examples of the "Volunteer's Dilemma?" The book is an engaging read, but I'm finding maybe I need to do further reading to answer a lot of questions that came up about game theory. I only gave the book three stars, because I was left with more questions than when I started.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a work of popular science, this book should have had the goal of being fun to read as well as instructive on its topic. Rock, Paper, Scissors partially succeeds in that it introduces the concepts of game theory to the lay reader, but it's not a joy to read. I expected a little more wit and humor from an author whose previous work was on dunking donuts (I didn't read it, but I like the title).

Unfortunately, though, and the reason for my 2-star review, this introduction to game theory isn't terribly enlightening for anyone who has spent any moderate amount of time successfully interacting with actual human beings. As acknowledged in the book, much of this is common sense - it's, plain and simple, everyday life (per the sub-title), albeit a simplified version of it in order to keep the concepts simple.

[Nam Vũ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuốn sách cho mình cái nhìn đa chiều về những tình huống nan giải trong cuộc sống. Có thể khi nhỏ đó là trò chơi chẳng ai nghĩ đến. Nhưng thực sự nếu nhìn nhận nó ở trong cuộc sống thì chẳng ai ngờ nó là một lý thuyết trò chơi mà tác giả đào sâu với nhiều cách nhìn nhận.
Những chương đầu thì đọc không vấn đề gì nhưng những chương sau đọc rất xoắn não và khó hiểu.
Thực sự đọc xong quên hết ý trước đó luôn. Nhớ mang máng đại ý chứ rất khó đọc.
Bên cạch những tình huống là những cách giải quyết tình thế lương nan khá hay tuy nhiên chính tác giả cũng công nhận là nói dễ hơn làm.
Ngoài ra một số chương nói về sự hợp tác để có chiến lược tốt nhất rất hay luôn, bên cạnh còn có lòng tin và sử dụng niềm tin đó sao cho hiệu quả.
Dù sao thì mình thấy nó rất khô khan và mãi mới đọc hết@@

[Susan Chow-Dukhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author outlines the use of game theory to explain optimal results when co-operative behaviour is engaged between parties. The different results that can occur if some of the participants act in self-interest and if most of the participants act in self-interest are also presented.
This was an easy to read book, with good examples from the author's real life encounters and experiments, but the information provided was very basic. Most readers are logically able to figure out the results, when presented with the scenarios provided. An entertaining book, but not very informative.

[Hiep Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite appreciate the rather new approaching way of the book: generalizing daily matters into physics matrix with considerable explanation of human motivations & behaviors.
Yet, not easy to digest & quite many implications are just in the surface level, not deep enough for practice.
Anyway, a worth-reading book in human psycho.

[Linh Do · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuốn sách trình bày chi tiết về game sự tiến hóa của lòng tin
Bạn có thể tìm thấy thêm kiến thức về các dạng Thế lưỡng nan của người tù, rút cuộc thì nhận ra rằng lòng tin, hợp tác với nhau sẽ đem lại kết quả tốt nhất cho tất cả mọi người nếu bài toán đứa ra là tối ưu, chỉ nên tồn tại một điểm cân bằng Nash để con người lựa chọn.

[David Tagliaferri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a good overview. For those that write and complain that there is no depth to the book, you are correct, it is simply an overview of game theory, and if you want to go into depth, there is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book where you can find source material to folow up on specific Topics that interest you.