Bargains! PROMOTIONS

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Life Lessons from Game Theory

The Art of Thinking Strategically in a Complex World

Michael Wooldridge

$34.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English
WILDFIRE
19 May 2026
Most of us have some idea about game theory. Concepts like zero-sum games and the prisoner's dilemma crop up in films, novels and casual conversation, often as shorthand for cut-throat competition or inevitable betrayal. But game theory, the science behind these ideas, is widely misunderstood. All too often it's seen solely as the science of conflict and greed. In fact, this field has a lot to teach us about how to make a better world. It shows us just what it takes to enable cooperation and mutual benefit.

This essential primer presents twenty one

'life lessons from game theory', which illustrate the key ideas in the field, and which are packed with real world examples: from overfishing in the Atlantic; to the Cuban Missile Crisis; to security measures at international airports; to advertising wars between major brands. This is a hopeful and practical book that highlights the value of game theory and provides a course correction for its integration into the real world.
By:  
Imprint:   WILDFIRE
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 153mm, 
ISBN:   9781035407415
ISBN 10:   1035407418
Pages:   336
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Primary ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Michael Woodridge is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford, where he uses game theory to understand how to build AI agents that can cooperate with each other. He has won national and international awards for research, science communication and scientific leadership. He presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2023 and is the author of Artificial Intelligence (2018), part of the Ladybird Expert series, and The Road to Conscious Machines, which was published by Pelican in 2020.

Reviews for Life Lessons from Game Theory: The Art of Thinking Strategically in a Complex World

This very readable book effortlessly covers a broad swath of core ideas in game theory, with a sprinkle of British humour. * EDITH ELKIND, Ginny Rometty Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University * People presenting game theory tend to fall into one of two camps. The one delves into its rather involved technical details, rendering it inaccessible to a broad public. The other offers lessons from of game theory in a way that doesn't make contact with the actual theory. Wooldridge's wonderful book does neither. It extracts key elements of game (and social choice) theory, presents them faithfully and yet accessibly, and describes their implications to real life in common sense terms. * YOAV SHOHAM, professor (emeritus), Stanford University * In Life Lessons from Game Theory, Michael Wooldridge achieves the near-impossible: he explains the complex, strategic structures of our world with masterful beauty and simplicity of writing that is rare for such a deeply researched work. This book is indeed an essential guide for newcomers and even for experts to get a grasp of game theory and it is truly a brilliant contribution to the field. * MILIND TAMBE, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University *


See Also