#7 - The Art of Strategy
The Art of Strategy by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff made my gaming brain salivate as soon as I glanced over the cover. The subtitle said it all: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life. Yum!
This is the most interesting book on strategy I’ve ever read and I’ve been trough most of the classics in business school. Strategy is a way of thinking about everything in the context of others that are trying to achieve the same thing. It’s backward reasoning and game theory. It’s beautiful plans and well executed roadmaps. It’s a moveable feast.
The books starts out easy to train you in how to create game trees, think about probability and then extends to Nash’s equilibrium, different classic dilemma’s and signaling. They even use a reality show - Survivor - which they were consultants for as an example of how to create games that forces strategical thinking:
“Twenty-one flags were planted in the field of play between the tribes, who took turns in removing the flags. Each tribe at its turn could choose to remove 1, 2 or 3 flags. The team to take the last flag won the game.”
What would your strategy be?
