Thinking Strategically
The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life
by Avinash K. Dixit, Barry J. Nalebuff · first published 1991
82% recommend18% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Non-technical introduction to game theory and strategic thinking, applied to sports, business, and everyday situations; suits readers new to the subject and those who want clearer intuition about competition.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Sets forth the findings of game theory as a series of basic strategic principles, illustrated with stories of human interaction--in sports, politics, business, and personal life.
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Thinking Strategically is one of my favorites. It spends each chapter analyzing techniques of competition, trend, and innovation. It reads quite easily and offers outside examples ranging from sports, large corporations,…
on “Ask YC: What are some the best business books?” ↗…LA public library and picked up 10 stellar titles just this weekend, I highly recommend all of these: - Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software [MIT] - Prisoner's Dilemma [William Poundstone] - Thinking Strategically [Nalebuff] - Co-opetition [Nalebuff] - Cluetrain Manifesto [Searls] - Open Sources 2.0 [O'Reilly] - Innovator's Dilemma [Christensen] - Net Worth [Hagel] - Democratizing Innovation [von Hippel] - Fooled…
on “Do you read?” ↗…Philosophers Paul Krugman, Peddling Prosperity Steven Landsburg, The Armchair Economist P.J. O'Rourke, Eat the Rich Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff, Thinking Strategically Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics John McMillan, Reinventing the Bazaar William Breit and Barry T. Hirsch, Lives of the Laureates I'd also recommend a good textbook, if you're a little…
on “Ask HN: Getting a grip on economics” ↗If you're interested in game theory and strategy and looking for a non-technical introduction, I'd heavily recommend the book Thinking Strategically by Dixit and Nalebuff ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393310353 ). I'd been exposed to a lot of the concepts before, but they hadn't completely clicked until reading their engaging examples.
on “Game Theory - Marginal Advantage” ↗Thinking Strategically by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff is a fantastic way to start. You can pick it up without any prior knowledge of game theory. I'd also recommend Ken Binmore's Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction.
on “Game Theory: Open Access textbook” ↗Two books on improving your thinking skills: 1. Super Thinking - Lauren McCann and Gabriel Weinberg (DuckDuckGo) 2. Thinking Strategically - Avinash Dixit
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗…Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury, 2011 edition Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury Bargaining for Advantage by Richard Shell, 2nd edition 2006 Thinking Strategically by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff Nonviolent Communication: A language of life by Marshall Rosenberg, 2015 edition The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗Thinking Strategically. A great primer on game theory. Everything changed colors for me after I read this. Definite required reading for everyone. Abundance. Problems of economic scarcity are really about access. Technology…
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗I read Thinking Strategically – The Competetive Edge in Business Politics & Everyday Reissue many years back. I thought it was a good introduction as it focused on different fields like sports, business, etc, through the lens of economics
on “Ask HN: Good Books as an Introduction to Economics?” ↗…from very specific works on central banking, finance and behavioural economics to an undergrad textbook covering most of Econ 101. Some of these entries are only tangentially related to economic theory (Thinking Strategically, Capitalism vs. the Climate). There are also some glaring omissions (e.g. Radical Markets by Posner and Weyl).
on “Books to Understand Economics” ↗I read the title and introduction, seems like this is a similar book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Strategically - feat. my econ teacher's favorite authors
on “Algorithms for Decision Making [pdf]” ↗