How to Play a Win-Win Game

            Game theory? It’s not just about games, instead, it is about the strategies that we might be able to apply in our everyday lives. Game theory can explain what is going on behind cheating, argument, divorces and even broken promises. It was the content of the first two paragraphs in the introduction of the book ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ by Len Fisher that caught my attention the most. Knowing the reason behind those is such wow.

Of course the fact that the book was about game theory already got my interest. I love games, I mean, who doesn't? Playing games is fun, but it’s more fun if you win. And this book would help you with that.

The first chapter was about Nash equilibrium. It is an equilibrium that always lead to a bad outcome. Yes, it is a trap, the question is, how do we get out of them? Although I would say that this chapter was a bit boring since he was mainly discussing the prisoner and his dilemma, it was very informative since a lot of us indeed want to get out from any trap that we might encounter.

Chapter two on the other hand was entitled, “I Cut and You Choose”. This chapter introduced the concept of fair division and Minimax principle. Minimax is a principle that aims for “best result possible” instead of “best possible result”, which indeed make sense. It is just like accepting what’s present and making the best out of it. 

The next chapter discussed about the seven most interesting game theory problems which Fisher quoted as “The Seven Deadly Dilemmas”. The chapter was mainly about the summary of these dilemmas and his thoughts about them. I even find some of the dilemmas kind of funny J

Fourth chapter was about Rock, paper, scissors or locally known as “papel, gunting, bato”, which is played all over the world. We use this ’game’ to resolve conflicts since no strategy can be made allowing fair chances of winning. I always loved this game because we play this to choose who will wash the dishes and I always win. His approach in writing this chapter was also humorous.

“Let’s Get Together”, Chapter 5, discussed about negotiation and communication. It is said that these two are the keys to end the social dilemmas. It also talked about coalition, commitment, and asked if we are being rational in doing these decisions.  This chapter might teach us the essence of communication and negotiation in every step we decide to do. This is to prevent disagreements between parties and I think his advises would be very useful.

The next chapter was entitled “Trust”. It tackled about how to trust, how to offer trust, and who to trust. We, human beings, naturally do not just give trust to anyone, it is part of the human nature. But, do we know that offering trust to others would allow certain dilemmas to disappear? If only we can trust that easy, our world would have been a better place.

Tit for Tat was the next chapter and it mainly talked about cooperation. How necessary is cooperation in solving things and how to promote cooperation. Cooperation means working together towards the same end. Two heads are better than one, that is mainly the point of this chapter.

The last chapter which was entitled “Changing the Game” was literally about changing the game. It was said that once you feel that the game is about to turn into a “trap”, you should change the game. If you know you are never gonna win a game, would you still prefer to continue? Some of us would to brave to do so. But according to the book, that is not the best way to do, instead, one should change the game to increase the chance of winning.

The top ten tips that Fisher wrote in the conclusion were also very interesting. “Stay if you win, shift if you lose”, if at first, you don’t win, don’t waste your time pushing, change your strategy immediately. “Bring an extra player”, bring someone to balance and maintain cooperation between two parties. “Set up some form of reciprocity”, you should stay connected with the other party and expect to cooperate with them again someday. “Restrict your own future options so that you will lose out if you defect on cooperation”, set something that will allow them or you to lose something if they or you are to stop cooperating with each other. “Offer trust” to show them that your cooperation is genuine. “Create a situation that neither party can independently escape from without loss” to avoid withdrawal of cooperation. “Use side payments to create and maintain cooperative coalitions”, any form of bribery will do. “Be aware of the seven deadly dilemmas, and try to reorganize the benefits and costs to different players so that the dilemma disappears”. “Divide goods, responsibilities, jobs, and penalties so that the result is envy free”, this is to promote fairness to both parties. And lastly, “Divide large groups into smaller ones” to encourage bigger cooperation.

A lot of book experts said that this book is a very good book in game theory that can be understood by the general audience. I cannot agree more to that. It was indeed reader friendly and was very humorous.

Winning isn't everything, but we all know it is something.