Download or read book Prisoner s Dilemma written by Richard Powers and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The magnificent second novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory and the forthcoming Bewilderment. “Accomplished . . . mature and assured. . . . A major American novelist.”— New Republic Something is wrong with Eddie Hobson, Sr., father of four, sometime history teacher, quiz master, black humorist, and virtuoso invalid. His recurring fainting spells have worsened, and given his ingrained aversion to doctors, his worried family tries to discover the nature of his sickness. Meanwhile, in private, Eddie puts the finishing touches on a secret project he calls Hobbstown, a place that he promises will save him, the world, and everything that’s in it. A dazzling novel of compassion and imagination, Prisoner’s Dilemma is a story of the power of individual experience.

Download or read book Game Theory 101 written by William Spaniel and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Game Theory 101: The Complete Textbook is a no-nonsense, games-centered introduction to strategic form (matrix) and extensive form (game tree) games. From the first lesson to the last, this textbook introduces games of increasing complexity and then teaches the game theoretical tools necessary to solve them. Quick, efficient, and to the point, Game Theory 101: The Complete Textbook is perfect for introductory game theory, intermediate microeconomics, and political science.

Download or read book The Evolution of Cooperation written by Robert Axelrod and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A famed political scientist's classic argument for a more cooperative world We assume that, in a world ruled by natural selection, selfishness pays. So why cooperate? In The Evolution of Cooperation, political scientist Robert Axelrod seeks to answer this question. In 1980, he organized the famed Computer Prisoners Dilemma Tournament, which sought to find the optimal strategy for survival in a particular game. Over and over, the simplest strategy, a cooperative program called Tit for Tat, shut out the competition. In other words, cooperation, not unfettered competition, turns out to be our best chance for survival. A vital book for leaders and decision makers, The Evolution of Cooperation reveals how cooperative principles help us think better about everything from military strategy, to political elections, to family dynamics.

Download or read book The Dilemma of Our Times Works of Harold J Laski written by Harold J. Laski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-24 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, originally published in 1952, unfinished and perhaps imperfect, is the last book of one of the most acute political thinkers of the twentieth century. Laski’s earlier optimism about a swing to the Left was beginning to be reversed, and in this volume he saw the defects of his previous optimistic surveys, which, in his opinion, still had value, but needed to be brought up-to-date and consquently he began to write an additional chapter which was never completed. It remains a valuable last word of an author who for thirty years was respected and listened to on the topic of civilisation’s survial through change.

Download or read book The Ex Prisoner s Dilemma written by Andrea M. Leverentz and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a woman leaves prison, she enters a world of competing messages and conflicting advice. Staff from prison, friends, family members, workers at halfway houses and treatment programs all have something to say about who she is, who she should be, and what she should do. The Ex-Prisoner’s Dilemma offers an in-depth, firsthand look at how the former prisoner manages messages about returning to the community. Over the course of a year, Andrea Leverentz conducted repeated interviews with forty-nine women as they adjusted to life outside of prison and worked to construct new ideas of themselves as former prisoners and as mothers, daughters, sisters, romantic partners, friends, students, and workers. Listening to these women, along with their family members, friends, and co-workers, Leverentz pieces together the narratives they have created to explain their past records and guide their future behavior. She traces where these narratives came from and how they were shaped by factors such as gender, race, maternal status, age, and experiences in prison, halfway houses, and twelve-step programs—factors that in turn shaped the women’s expectations for themselves, and others’ expectations of them. The women’s stories form a powerful picture of the complex, complicated human experience behind dry statistics and policy statements regarding prisoner reentry into society for women, how the experience is different for men and the influence society plays. With its unique view of how society’s mixed messages play out in ex-prisoners’ lived realities, The Ex-Prisoner’s Dilemma shows the complexity of these women’s experiences within the broad context of the war on drugs and mass incarceration in America. It offers invaluable lessons for helping such women successfully rejoin society.

Download or read book The Prisoner s Dilemma written by Sean Stuart O'Connor and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2013-04-26 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The far north coast of Scotland. Spring 1745. It begins with a murder. But is it a murder when someone is forced to kill his brother, so that he might save his own life? The guilty man is a nobody, a poor fisherman. The person who arrogantly and unthinkingly makes him commit this terrible act, simply to see how he behaved, is the richest man in Scotland, the Earl of Dunbeath. Dunbeath invents his game of life the Prisoner s Dilemma. He invites his old friend, David Hume, to Caithness to play the new game with him. But into their planned discussions blow two survivors from a shipwreck - the beautiful and brilliant Sophie Kant and the calm, charismatic captain, Alexis Zweig. What follows is a claustrophobic and fast-moving game of cat and mouse, as the characters drive relentlessly towards their destinies in life and death, love and betrayal and the passion they each have to achieve their different ambitions. Under the game-playing, the deceits and feints, the science and the philosophy, is a simple tale of three utterly determined and ruthless men struggling to the death to succeed in the race for an extraordinary woman. Which of them will win? How? And why? ,

Download or read book The Prisoner s Dilemma written by Martin Peterson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the Prisoner's Dilemma, exploring its continued significance and ramifications in varying fields of study.

Download or read book The Times Life and Moral Dilemma of Beria written by Andrew Sangster and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-02-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are some figures in modern history who stand out not just for their amoral conduct but their cruelty. This book explores the life of the notorious Beria, Stalin’s henchman. The first part provides an outline of the turbulent history of Russia from 1900 to 1953, in order to set the background from which Beria emerged. The second section presents a biography of Beria from his youth, his early education, and his obsequious behaviour towards Stalin to his rise to be the head of the NKVD (KGB) and later to be amongst the most senior leaders of the Communist structure in the USSR. He was responsible for the deaths of millions (and for organising the Katyń massacre), infamous for murdering colleagues, and a sexual predator, and became the most feared man in the USSR next to Stalin. The third and fourth parts move away from history and biography to moral philosophy, in order to understand from where such evil conduct arises. The question of free-will is explored in the light of human insight, and these sections also discuss the most recent scientific claims concerning human behaviour, as well as the factors which influence people in decision making.

Download or read book The Omnivore s Dilemma written by Michael Pollan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Outstanding . . . a wide-ranging invitation to think through the moral ramifications of our eating habits." —The New Yorker One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year and Winner of the James Beard Award Author of This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind and the #1 New York Times Bestseller In Defense of Food and Food Rules What should we have for dinner? Ten years ago, Michael Pollan confronted us with this seemingly simple question and, with The Omnivore’s Dilemma, his brilliant and eye-opening exploration of our food choices, demonstrated that how we answer it today may determine not only our health but our survival as a species. In the years since, Pollan’s revolutionary examination has changed the way Americans think about food. Bringing wide attention to the little-known but vitally important dimensions of food and agriculture in America, Pollan launched a national conversation about what we eat and the profound consequences that even the simplest everyday food choices have on both ourselves and the natural world. Ten years later, The Omnivore’s Dilemma continues to transform the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating.

Download or read book The Iterated Prisoners Dilemma written by Graham Kendall and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2007 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1984, Robert Axelrod published a book, relating the story of two competitions which he ran, where invited academics entered strategies for the Iterated PrisonersOCO Dilemma. The book, almost 20 years on, is still widely read and cited by academics and the general public. As a celebration of that landmark work, we have recreated those competitions to celebrate its 20th anniversary, by again inviting academics to submit prisonersOCO dilemma strategies. The first of these new competitions was run in July 2004, and the second in April 2005. Iterated PrisonersOCO Dilemma: 20 Years On essentially provides an update of the AxelrodOCOs book. Specifically, it. OCo Presents the prisonersOCO dilemma, its history and variants. OCo Highlights original Axelrod's work and its impact. OCo Discusses results of new competitions. OCo Showcases selected papers that reflect the latest researches in the area."

Download or read book Prisoner s Dilemma written by William Poundstone and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful work of science writing that’s "both a fascinating biography of von Neumann, the Hungarian exile whose mathematical theories were building blocks for the A-bomb and the digital computer, and a brilliant social history of game theory and its role in the Cold War and nuclear arms race" (San Francisco Chronicle). Should you watch public television without pledging?...Exceed the posted speed limit?...Hop a subway turnstile without paying? These questions illustrate the so-called "prisoner's dilemma", a social puzzle that we all face every day. Though the answers may seem simple, their profound implications make the prisoner's dilemma one of the great unifying concepts of science. Watching players bluff in a poker game inspired John von Neumann—father of the modern computer and one of the sharpest minds of the century—to construct game theory, a mathematical study of conflict and deception. Game theory was readily embraced at the RAND Corporation, the archetypical think tank charged with formulating military strategy for the atomic age, and in 1950 two RAND scientists made a momentous discovery. Called the "prisoner's dilemma," it is a disturbing and mind-bending game where two or more people may betray the common good for individual gain. Introduced shortly after the Soviet Union acquired the atomic bomb, the prisoner's dilemma quickly became a popular allegory of the nuclear arms race. Intellectuals such as von Neumann and Bertrand Russell joined military and political leaders in rallying to the "preventive war" movement, which advocated a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. Though the Truman administration rejected preventive war the United States entered into an arms race with the Soviets and game theory developed into a controversial tool of public policy—alternately accused of justifying arms races and touted as the only hope of preventing them. Prisoner's Dilemma is the incisive story of a revolutionary idea that has been hailed as a landmark of twentieth-century thought.

Download or read book Is Behavioral Economics Doomed written by David K. Levine and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2012 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, David K. Levine questions the idea that behavioral economics is the answer to economic problems. He explores the successes and failures of contemporary economics both inside and outside the laboratory, and asks whether popular behavioral theories of psychological biases are solutions to the failures. The book not only provides an overview of popular behavioral theories and their history, but also gives the reader the tools for scrutinizing them.

Download or read book Putin s Labor Dilemma written by Stephen Crowley and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Putin's Labor Dilemma, Stephen Crowley investigates how the fear of labor protest has inhibited substantial economic transformation in Russia. Putin boasts he has the backing of workers in the country's industrial heartland, but as economic growth slows in Russia, reviving the economy will require restructuring the country's industrial landscape. At the same time, doing so threatens to generate protest and instability from a key regime constituency. However, continuing to prop up Russia's Soviet-era workplaces, writes Crowley, could lead to declining wages and economic stagnation, threatening protest and instability. Crowley explores the dynamics of a Russian labor market that generally avoids mass unemployment, the potentially explosive role of Russia's monotowns, conflicts generated by massive downsizing in "Russia's Detroit" (Tol'yatti), and the rapid politicization of the truck drivers movement. Labor protests currently show little sign of threatening Putin's hold on power, but the manner in which they are being conducted point to substantial chronic problems that will be difficult to resolve. Putin's Labor Dilemma demonstrates that the Russian economy must either find new sources of economic growth or face stagnation. Either scenario—market reforms or economic stagnation—raises the possibility, even probability, of destabilizing social unrest.

Download or read book The Disruption Dilemma written by Joshua Gans and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-03-18 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert in management takes on the conventional wisdom about disruption, looking at companies that proved resilient and offering managers tools for survival. “Disruption” is a business buzzword that has gotten out of control. Today everything and everyone seem to be characterized as disruptive—or, if they aren't disruptive yet, it's only a matter of time before they become so. In this book, Joshua Gans cuts through the chatter to focus on disruption in its initial use as a business term, identifying new ways to understand it and suggesting new tools to manage it. Almost twenty years ago Clayton Christensen popularized the term in his book The Innovator's Dilemma, writing of disruption as a set of risks that established firms face. Since then, few have closely examined his account. Gans does so in this book. He looks at companies that have proven resilient and those that have fallen, and explains why some companies have successfully managed disruption—Fujifilm and Canon, for example—and why some like Blockbuster and Encyclopedia Britannica have not. Departing from the conventional wisdom, Gans identifies two kinds of disruption: demand-side, when successful firms focus on their main customers and underestimate market entrants with innovations that target niche demands; and supply-side, when firms focused on developing existing competencies become incapable of developing new ones. Gans describes the full range of actions business leaders can take to deal with each type of disruption, from “self-disrupting” independent internal units to tightly integrated product development. But therein lies the disruption dilemma: A firm cannot practice both independence and integration at once. Gans shows business leaders how to choose their strategy so their firms can deal with disruption while continuing to innovate.

Download or read book Solving the Dynamic Complexity Dilemma written by Nabil Abu el Ata and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dynamic complexity results from hidden, unknown factors—or more precisely, interactions between factors—that can unexpectedly impact the performance of systems. When the influences of dynamic complexity are not measured and understood, new never-seen-before behaviors can come as unwelcomed surprises, which disrupt the performance of systems. Left alone, processes that were once prized for their efficiency unexpectedly begin to degrade—costs increase, while volumes and quality decline. Evidence of problems may come too late for effective resolution as technology advancements induce rapid change and compress the time available to react to that change. The results of dynamic complexity are always negative and unmanaged dynamic complexity can bring business or global systems to the point of sudden chaos. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic, 2008 Credit Crunch and 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are global examples of the dangers of undiagnosed dynamic complexity. With increasing frequency executive leaders today are discovering that their business and IT system performance levels are not meeting expectations. In most cases these performance deficiencies are caused by dynamic complexity, which lies hidden like a cancer until the symptoms reveal themselves—often when it is too late to avoid negative impacts on business outcomes. This book examines the growing business problem of dynamic complexity and presents a path to a practical solution. To achieve better predictability, organizations must be able to expose new, dangerous patterns of behavior in time to take corrective actions and know which actions will yield the optimal results. The book authors promote new methods of risk management that use data collection, analytics, machine learning and automation processes to help organizations more accurately predict the future and take strategic actions to improve performance outcomes. The presented means of achieving this goal are based upon the authors’ practical experiences, backed by scientific principles, and results achieved through consulting engagements with over 350 global organizations.

Download or read book The Founder s Dilemmas written by Noam Wasserman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Founder's Dilemmas examines how early decisions by entrepreneurs can make or break a startup and its team. Drawing on a decade of research, including quantitative data on almost ten thousand founders as well as inside stories of founders like Evan Williams of Twitter and Tim Westergren of Pandora, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them.

Download or read book The Great Mental Models Volume 1 written by Shane Parrish and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-10-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.