Also, I feel like many of the posts tagged “decision” or “decision theory” are more about logical AIs in contrived situations than the type of decision making we’re trying to do here. Take the prisoner’s dilemma for example.There
are more than 2 individual playing in real life There are no arbitrary rules in real life. When does game theory apply in my every day life (and in trying to make this decision?)?
Game theory was applied during the Cold War to analyze how best to play the “great game” with the Soviets. It has also been applied to bargaining / negotiating.
My employer does advanced marketing research and analysis, and some of our clients are large companies that have a limited number of major competitors (an oligopoly situation). In this situation game theory is useful in making decisions about positioning and marketing—if you change your product lineup, prices, etc., your competitors will make changes of their own in response, and you have to take this into account.
I can’t think of an application to everyday decisions of individuals, however. You’re right that game theory is less relevant when there are many players so that no one player has a major impact on the others.
The reason it works in war and in business is you’ve got a measurable outcome/reward. Lives and dollars. However, we cannot quantify happiness or success with a “how do you fell from 1-10?” survey.
Also, I feel like many of the posts tagged “decision” or “decision theory” are more about logical AIs in contrived situations than the type of decision making we’re trying to do here. Take the prisoner’s dilemma for example.There are more than 2 individual playing in real life There are no arbitrary rules in real life. When does game theory apply in my every day life (and in trying to make this decision?)?
Game theory was applied during the Cold War to analyze how best to play the “great game” with the Soviets. It has also been applied to bargaining / negotiating.
My employer does advanced marketing research and analysis, and some of our clients are large companies that have a limited number of major competitors (an oligopoly situation). In this situation game theory is useful in making decisions about positioning and marketing—if you change your product lineup, prices, etc., your competitors will make changes of their own in response, and you have to take this into account.
I can’t think of an application to everyday decisions of individuals, however. You’re right that game theory is less relevant when there are many players so that no one player has a major impact on the others.
The reason it works in war and in business is you’ve got a measurable outcome/reward. Lives and dollars. However, we cannot quantify happiness or success with a “how do you fell from 1-10?” survey.