Interview with Erez Yoeli, author of Hidden Games: The Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior
Erez Yoeli, co-author of Hidden Games: The Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior recommends some intriguing books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Erez's book:
Review from Book Depository:
How game theory - the ultimate theory of rationality - explains irrational behaviour.
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Hidden Games: The Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior
In Hidden Games, MIT economists Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli find a surprising middle ground between the hyperrationality of classical economics and the hyper-irrationality of behavioural economics. They call it hidden games. Reviving game theory, Hoffman and Yoeli use it to explain our most puzzling behaviour, from the mechanics of Stockholm syndrome and internalised misogyny to why we help strangers and have a sense of fairness.
Fun and powerfully insightful, Hidden Games is an eye-opening argument for using game theory to explain all the irrational things we think, feel, and do and will change how you think forever.
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Book Depository €19.99
Waterstones £25.00
Wordery $23.93
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
My absolute favorite of all time is probably still Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, which, despite being a breezy, fun read, fundamentally altered the way I view the world. More recent favorites are Joe Henrich's The Secret to Our Success and The WEIRDEST People in the World; Joe's way of seeing the world is powerfully insightful.
Review From Book Depository
As influential today as when it was first published, The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology
community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research. Forty years later, its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published.
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The Selfish Gene
This 40th anniversary edition includes a new epilogue from the author discussing the continuing relevance of these ideas in evolutionary biology today, as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews.
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Easons €10.99
Book Depository €9.48
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $11.71
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct, and I can't stop recommending it. It's a great overview of how cooperation has shaped the natural world, and our own lives, with fascinating applications ranging from cleaner fish to cancer.
Review From Book Depository:
Why cooperate? This may be the most important scientific question we have ever, and will ever, face.
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The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World
The science of cooperation tells us not only how we got here, but also where we might end up. Cooperation explains how strands of DNA gave rise to modern-day nation states. It defines our extraordinary ecological success as well as many of the most surprising features of what make us human: not only why we live in families, why we have grandmothers and why women experience the menopause, but also why we become paranoid and jealous, and why we cheat.
Nichola Raihani also introduces us to other species who, like us, live and work together. From the pied babblers of the Kalahari to the cleaner fish of the Great Barrier Reef, they happen to be some of the most fascinating and extraordinarily successful species on this planet. What do we have in common with these other species, and what is it that sets us apart?
Written at a time of global pandemic, when the challenges and importance of cooperation have never been greater, The Social Instinct is an exhilarating, far-reaching and thought-provoking journey through all life on Earth, with profound insights into what makes us human and how our societies work.
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Easons €28.00
Book Depository €16.46
Waterstones £20.00
Wordery $21.78
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
I read a lot as a kid, though I have a terrible memory, and sadly remember little of what I read. I do remember finding Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree to be particularly touching, even when I would leaf through it as an older kid. I still choke up a bit when I do so now. Hat's off to Silverstein for distilling into this comically simple story a tragic truth about love.
Review From Book Depository:
Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton's most popular series.
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The Giving Tree
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Easons €14.56
Book Depository €14.17
Waterstones £12.99
Wordery $13.17
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
In my day-to-day, I am an audiobook-o-holic, and am constantly searching for excuses to walk places so I can listen. Paper and Kindle are both equally likely to get pulled out when I'm on vacation, disconnected from the internet.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Probably the University of Chicago's Seminary Co-Op Bookstore. I loved them in their old location in the basement of the Seminary, and still love them in their new location, alongside Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House.
Many thanks to Erez for recommending some intriguing books! Please don't forget to check out Erez's book Hidden Games: The Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: John Murray Press (Hidden Games), Oxford University Press (The Selfish Gene), Vintage Publishing (The Social Instinct), HarperCollins Publishers Inc (The Giving Tree)
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