Game Theory
The mathematics of strategy: how rational players choose when the best move depends on what everyone else does.
What a game is
Players, strategies, and payoffs: the three ingredients that turn a situation of conflicting interests into something you can solve.
The prisoner's dilemma
The game where two players, both reasoning perfectly, end up worse off than if neither had reasoned at all.
Nash equilibrium
The idea of a stable outcome, where nobody can do better by changing their own move alone.
Mixed strategies
Why in some games the only stable play is to be deliberately unpredictable, and how to work out the right odds.
Repeated games and cooperation
How playing the same game over and over can turn defection into cooperation, and what tit for tat showed.
Coordination and bargaining
Games where players want to agree but must guess which agreement, and how commitment and focal points settle them.