“In this arena
called life, we are all players. Every moment we make a decision, we are truly
facing a battle one way or another. It can be a battle to get the best for our
own benefit, a fight for the sake of our survival, a war to beat all odds for
our favor. Or perhaps, it can be mad duel between you and yourself. Whatever it
may be, as long as we are face with the challenge of choosing, even without the
presence of physical destruction, we are actually on a combat. A game to win at
the expense of acquiring the best that we could ever have. “
And
that note above was my general realization after reading this totally amazing
book. I am not kidding when I say this book totally rocks. At first glance, the
title doesn’t have much impact on me and according to my initial queries about
the content of the story, they would respond negatively. Bad first impression,
you must say. But hey, I was proven wrong. I did not just like it, I love it!
The truth is, if I just have enough time, I would totally eat all the pages and
digest those amazing ideas in my mind. Because if you might ask, this book is
so smart that you have to read it at least twice in order to fully understand
it. No, it’s not that it is so technical; in fact, I admire how the author
discussed the points in the simplest way. What makes it confusing, were the
ideas itself. The twists and turns, the drifts and maneuvers and seeing phenomena
through different angles. Cool. Awesome. Stimulating and Interesting.
Sorry
if you can’t relate to all the stuff I’m saying. But just to give you a glimpse
of the book, I would gladly share the parts that struck me the most.
I,
as a person, admit that I know less about logic. That’s why being able to read
this is such really pleasure to me. Okay, enough of the flowery words. Haha.
First
is the amazing strategy called the ‘Prisoner Dilemma’. I can’t really describe
it without the help of a diagram but I will try. It’s the strategy commonly use
by lawyers in order to convince the suspects to tell the truth and admit that
they are guilty. It’s really a cool mind game as well as a wise tactic to trap
the person. For you to really understand it, well just read it. That’s the best
definition I could give. Hahaha.
The
second was the ‘I Cut, You Choose’ strategy. This one works when you offer two
choices; ideally one larger piece of cake and one smaller piece. You give the
other person the option to choose. Then basically, to be nice, they would pick
the smaller piece to be modest. But wait, the one who picked didn’t really
sacrifice something. There is a yet an untold story. When the author tried to
ask those persons he used for his experiments, why they picked the smaller
piece, they replied that it’s because they would feel bad if they grab the
bigger cake. It would seem that they are greedy. So the next step that the
author did was letting these people quantify or score the value of the small
and bigger cake as well as the act of getting the small and big pieces. And
from the results, the mixture of the entities that they choose was indeed
greater even if they seem to have sacrificed something. I hope you’re getting
me in this. Isn’t it cool? I never thought that emotions can be quantifiable.
But of course, it varies from person to person, and the unit used it called
util. Yehey! I remembered.
Third,
is the great potential of applying these game theories, in real-life situations
such as political agreements, business negotiations, deals and even in
parenting. The way it resolves conflicts and the way it could settle undecided
matters without having impartiality and with full fairness. It can help spread
peace on earth. Unfortunately, applying these principles won’t be easy and
somehow idealistic says the author.
Anyway,
at some point, we could see that logic can be likened to psychology, or maybe
it is indeed a branch of psychology.
There are really a lot of good points in this
book. You just have to see it for yourself. This book can make you think twice
about life and change or broaden your perspective about life. It will open your
eyes to appreciate life the way it magnifies the little details in life and giving
to much sense in it. Lastly, it just not makes you smarter but it gives you
tips, strategies to how to live your life effectively and getting the best
possible thing you could ever have.
Play
wisely.
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