Outplayed

Outplayed: How Game Theory Is Used Against Us will show you the ways in which people try to take advantage of you. It will guide you on how to structure incentives to get others to work with and not against you. It will help you determine when to cooperate—and when to compete. Outplayed is a book about game theory.

Game theory is fundamentally about strategy and thus has applications far beyond poker, chess, or checkers. Game theory is part of our everyday lives, and it plays an important role in economics, finance, political science, and biology. After reading this book, you will understand how game theory is used against you. You will learn that the optimal strategy for a game undertaken only once is completely different from that of a game played repeatedly. You will come to know that if you want others to work with you, an Old Testament “an eye-for-an-eye” strategy is better than a New Testament “Turn the other cheek.” You will gain a different perspective on the differences between males and females and why the strategies of monogamy and polygamy are the primary weapons in the “battle of the sexes.” You will come to know why game theory sometimes determines who wins elections, and you will learn to question the assumptions behind the most important game currently being played—the game known as mutual assured destruction, or MAD, a deadly version of the prisoner’s dilemma.

Previous books on game theory were inaccessible to most, due to the high level of mathematical fluency required. But there are no equations or proofs here. Lockwood, a former member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, applies game theory to a broad range of topics without the formulas.