Weekly Musings© -Recent Reading
J Sweeney
2/24/05
I was laid up last week after a minor operation and had more than my regular share of time to read. After completing Tom Wolf’s new novel “I Am Charlotte Simmons” and then Emmanuel Derman’s autobiographical account, “My Life As A Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance”, I greedily began an exploration of game theory.
I purchased three highly acclaimed books on game theory from the online retailer Amazon. Selected to provide a gradually increasing level of technical detail they are “Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction”, by Morton D. Davis, “The Complete Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy”, by J.D. Williams, and finally “The Mathematics of Games of Strategy; Theory and Applications” by Melvin Dresher.
A quick review:
Unless you have teenage children about to enter college or your work requires insight into the youth culture of our county, I suggest you avoid Mr. Wolf’s book. It is sloppily written, un-ambitious, and lacks any new information about the modern college experience. If you don’t already know that students are engaged in historically high levels of immoral and imprudent behavior, and that a culture of decadence is actively promoted to our young people, you are wildly out of touch with our society and should stop voting immediately.
Dr. Derman’s book about the Wall Street intersection of financial derivatives, computer science, and stochastic mathematics is a jaunty ride through a world that many of us (especially Catholics according to Harvard’s President Lawrence Summers) will likely never experience. He relates his movement from academia to investment banking and back. It has the merit of not only offering interesting details but is a great source for answering that timeless question from students, “When will I ever use this stuff?”
It seems some of them think they will graduate and immediately be free from ever thinking, speaking, or estimating the fair value of anything ever again.
Save the best for last is the truism of ice cream and in this case it was true. Morton Davis’ little book on game theory should be required reading for business people and citizens of a democracy. It is a wonderful read.
Incorporating examples from fields as diverse as marketing, defense, to genetic evolution Davis cites the theoretical work of notables like John Nash and Von Neumann. Each chapter begins with a series of situational puzzles and the reader is encouraged to choose their winning strategy before reading the chapter related to that type of game. After carefully explaining the concepts of the chapter and sharing several examples to illustrate the concepts, Davis provides mathematically sound but very accessible solutions to each of the opening questions.
You’ll be amazed at the number of parallels to daily life game theory provides a framework for thinking about. I intend to make it required reading in my high school math class during the fourth quarter. I am already using examples drawn from the book to write more interesting word problems and tie classroom topics to non-traditional applications.
Well, this musing was originally going to be about US strategic dominance and the risk of decline as the EU begins selling advanced weapons to China, but I need to complete more research and thinking before committing anything to paper…oops, paper, yeah right.
J Sweeney
2/24/05
I was laid up last week after a minor operation and had more than my regular share of time to read. After completing Tom Wolf’s new novel “I Am Charlotte Simmons” and then Emmanuel Derman’s autobiographical account, “My Life As A Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance”, I greedily began an exploration of game theory.
I purchased three highly acclaimed books on game theory from the online retailer Amazon. Selected to provide a gradually increasing level of technical detail they are “Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction”, by Morton D. Davis, “The Complete Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy”, by J.D. Williams, and finally “The Mathematics of Games of Strategy; Theory and Applications” by Melvin Dresher.
A quick review:
Unless you have teenage children about to enter college or your work requires insight into the youth culture of our county, I suggest you avoid Mr. Wolf’s book. It is sloppily written, un-ambitious, and lacks any new information about the modern college experience. If you don’t already know that students are engaged in historically high levels of immoral and imprudent behavior, and that a culture of decadence is actively promoted to our young people, you are wildly out of touch with our society and should stop voting immediately.
Dr. Derman’s book about the Wall Street intersection of financial derivatives, computer science, and stochastic mathematics is a jaunty ride through a world that many of us (especially Catholics according to Harvard’s President Lawrence Summers) will likely never experience. He relates his movement from academia to investment banking and back. It has the merit of not only offering interesting details but is a great source for answering that timeless question from students, “When will I ever use this stuff?”
It seems some of them think they will graduate and immediately be free from ever thinking, speaking, or estimating the fair value of anything ever again.
Save the best for last is the truism of ice cream and in this case it was true. Morton Davis’ little book on game theory should be required reading for business people and citizens of a democracy. It is a wonderful read.
Incorporating examples from fields as diverse as marketing, defense, to genetic evolution Davis cites the theoretical work of notables like John Nash and Von Neumann. Each chapter begins with a series of situational puzzles and the reader is encouraged to choose their winning strategy before reading the chapter related to that type of game. After carefully explaining the concepts of the chapter and sharing several examples to illustrate the concepts, Davis provides mathematically sound but very accessible solutions to each of the opening questions.
You’ll be amazed at the number of parallels to daily life game theory provides a framework for thinking about. I intend to make it required reading in my high school math class during the fourth quarter. I am already using examples drawn from the book to write more interesting word problems and tie classroom topics to non-traditional applications.
Well, this musing was originally going to be about US strategic dominance and the risk of decline as the EU begins selling advanced weapons to China, but I need to complete more research and thinking before committing anything to paper…oops, paper, yeah right.
