Thomas Schelling – The Strategy of Conflict – book review

In a nutshell (328 pages), this is another great work by Schelling, this time on strategy. Usually, books on Game Theory are so heavy on mathematics that they can be off-putting to the reader, maybe even making it unreadable for many people, but this book largely stays away from math equations and instead is about the strategies and logic behind them.

What I got out of it

This is an extremely well-thought-out book that helps to illustrate how organizations from families, to companies to countries can use strategy to get the best outcomes possible in fluid situations. Life is nothing like chess with a known number of squares, players, and moves available. That makes rules, guidelines and heuristics very important, and that’s what this book offers.

What was difficult

Some of what’s in this book is not for everyone. There were some parts that I could have done without either because of the complexity, or the scale. I’m not running a countries defence department, for example.

Recommendation

Don’t read this if you want a light read, definitely read this if you want an intelligent introduction to game theory especially if you don’t feel confident with advanced mathematics. I further recommend that if a section seems “a bit much” bookmark it and come back at the end. You’ll get more out of the second reading.