I’ve read this book in Hebrew, in which the title is “Game Theory”. Generally I think that “Thinking Strategically” is a much better title for the book, and once again the Hebrew translation is lacking.

The book doesn’t deal with game theory per se, but rather with its applications to strategical decision taking. Sure, some classic game theory concepts like the prisoner’s dilemma and equilibria are mentioned, but strategic decisions are certainly the main theme. The authors discuss how to make decisions in both sequential and simultaneous “games”, explaining the difference between the two very well, and providing nice examples where of turning from one type to another in a search for a best decision.

I have also enjoyed the numerous “real-life” examples the authors present, with clear and concise analyses, displaying the theory in action. Non-American readers (like myself) will probably have a hard time understanding all the (American) Football and Baseball examples, but there are enough non-sport topics, like politics and economics.

I regret that I haven’t read the original English text, as the Hebrew translation of it is far from good. Yet another reminder of why I so hate reading Hebrew translations of books written originally in other languages.

Related posts:

1. Book review: “The hummus king and the bathtub queen” by Ilan Heitner
2. Book review: “Hidden order …” by David Friedman
3. Book review: “AI for Game Developers” By D. Bourg, G. Seeman
4. Book review: “Russian Debutante’s Handbook” by Gary Shteyngart
5. Book review: “If there’s heaven” by Ron Leshem

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Book reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.