

Game Theory 101 - mbowcock
http://gametheory101.com/

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MaxGabriel
What I really like about Khan Academy is that Sal takes away all the magic.
The limit as x approaches 0 of sinx/x isn't 1 because "that's the formula,"
it's because (insert Sal's 15 minute proof showing the graphs and allowing you
to intuit the result).

In contrast, I just watched the first two lessons of this series and so far it
feels like a lot of magic. It's just a "rule" of strictly dominated strategies
that each of player 2's middle column values are larger than their end column
values, so we can eliminate the whole column. Why is this? What do those
values represent?

For anyone who has watched more of the videos, does the series improve in this
regard?

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wspaniel
When I started making the videos back in 2009, my concern was just showing how
to solve games. Details were details, especially since your average YouTube
viewer does not have much an attention spam that lasts past five minutes.

But you're right, the other things are important. I eventually get to them in
some of the later (and longer) videos, I talk about them in the textbook. The
first lesson is a free PDF on my academic website wjspaniel.wordpress.com, so
you can check it out if you are interested.

Thanks for the feedback.

William

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irollboozers
I actually think this approach to game theory is better for the uninitiated
trying to get their hands dirty with some fun problems in game theory without
needing the math or economic background. He doesn't go very in depth with the
proofs but those aren't really needed. Most of the examples he gives are more
fun mental exercises that have to be talked and reasoned through, which really
is the essence of game theory. Once you have that understanding of backwards
induction, it's then much easier to move into the more complex problems
(dynamic, incomplete, asymmetric information).

To be able to grasp a problem like pirates after watching a few videos is very
cool and much more practical, where the Yale course jumps directly into
Cournot/Bertrand games after five lectures. If you have no prior knowledge of
economics, it would be much harder to visualize things like competition and
marginal cost in this context. This online course is really just a primer for
bigger topics.

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untitledwiz
I am about to take a Game Theory final tomorrow so this post if very relevant
:)

The Yale Open Courses Game Theory class is also worth checking out. Material
is taught in a very accessible manner.

<http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/game-theory/>

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cr0atian
Hahah I was the first reply with the same link... Are you taking the final
tomorrow at Yale?

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untitledwiz
Ya I took the exam yesterday at Yale. Pretty long and difficult, everyone
stayed for the full 3.5 hours. Professor Polak is a firm believer of having a
good spread of scores and so made the exam long and challenging. All in all it
was a good class, I just wish he spent more time defining things in a more
rigorous way rather than bombarding us with intuition.

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dudurocha
Wow, this is a nice effort Mr Willian Spaniel did here. I just watched some
classes, and they are very nice spoken and clear. It's just like Khan Academy!

But the most impressive is the textbook costs, only 99 cents or 2,99 cents! I
think I will buy, watch the classes and wait for the stanford free class to
make a better foundation in game theory.

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michaelll
Stanford will be continuing its tradition with online courses this spring and
one of the classes they plan to host is an introduction to game theory:
<http://www.game-theory-class.org/index.php> .

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milofelipe
When I checked the Amazon US links, they're priced at 2.99 and 4.99,
respectively. Are the .99 and 2.99 prices available to some countries only?

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shangaslammi
The prices are $3.44 and $5.74 for me (when logged into Amazon US). That's a
nice +250% price hike for us Europeans!

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aerique
Came here to say this __and __I accidentally bought the basics version instead
of the more extensive one.

Oh well, I really liked the YouTube videos so the author more than deserves
it. It's just that those obvious price hikes get under my skin especially for
e-books. Or is it that Amazon includes any taxes they have to pay to the EU in
the price?

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shangaslammi
Amazon is paying VAT in the EU, but the last time I checked, the tax wasn't
quite in the hundreds of percents. This is just Amazon taking extra profit
because they can, and the author is only getting paid based on the $0.99 and
$2.99 price points.

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corroded
Should've seen this a couple of weeks ago when it was the topic for AI class.
Will probably use this as a reviewer for the finals. Thanks! :)

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obilgic
I used that website for my micro econ final 2 days ago

If you skip classes to work on your side project, that web site is must see.

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wildanimal
I couldn't tell from the first chapter, but are there a lot of equations? If
so, would be a big plus for me.

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wspaniel
Game theory doesn't become computationally intensive until you reach mixed
strategies, which start about half way through the first chapter. (If this
comment is referring to the PDF preview on my website, the PDF only contains
the first lesson.)

