Think 48 when you are wondering what the other player is trying to achieve. (Location 607)
Recall Richard Hatch’s ability to play out all the future moves to figure out what he should do. (Location 607)
In technology races, no less than in sailboat races, those who trail tend to employ more innovative strategies; the leaders tend to imitate the followers. (Location 615)
Rock Paper Scissors points out the strategic advantage of being unpredictable. (Location 616)
Our taxi rides make it clear that the other players in games are people, not machines. Pride, spite, and other emotions may color their decisions. When you put yourself in others’ shoes, you have to take them as they are, not as you are. (Location 617)
One of the general morals of this story is that if you have to take some risks, it is often better to do so as quickly as possible. (Location 1096)
a memorable presentation spreads and is assimilated in the community of thinkers far better and faster, whereas a dull and dry presentation may be overlooked or forgotten. (Location 1146)
This is a particularly simple example of a class of games called Nim-type games. To be specific, it is called a subtraction game with one heap. Harvard mathematician Charles Bouton was the first to discuss Nim-type games. His pioneering article is, “Nim, a game with a complete mathematical theory,” Annals of Mathematics 3, no. 2 (1902): 35–39, in which he proved a general rule for solving them. Almost a century’s worth of the research that followed was surveyed by Richard K. Guy, “Impartial Games,” in Richard J. Nowakowski, ed., Games of No Chance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 61–78. There is also a Wikipedia article on Nim-type games, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim, that gives further details and references. (Location 6832)
