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Shop nowThe Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting
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Learn moreThe tools you need to master the toughest negotiations you’ll ever face—those with your kids
As every parent knows, kids are surprisingly clever negotiators. But how can we avoid those all-too-familiar wails, “That’s not fair!” and “You can’t make me!”? In The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting, journalist Paul Raeburn and game theorist Kevin Zollman pair up to highlight tactics from the worlds of economics and business that can help parents break the endless cycle of quarrels and ineffective solutions. They show that some of the same strategies successfully applied to big business deals and politics—such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Ultimatum Game—can be used to solve such titanic, age-old parenting problems as dividing up toys, putting down those screens, and sticking to a bedtime.
Raeburn and Zollman open each chapter with a common parenting dilemma, such as determining who started a fight or who gets a bedtime story first. Then they show how carefully concocted schemes involving bargains and fair incentives can save the day. Through smart case studies of game theory in action, Raeburn and Zollman reveal how parents and children devise strategies, where those strategies go wrong, and what we can do to help raise happy and savvy kids while keeping the rest of the family happy too.
Delightfully witty, refreshingly irreverent, and just a bit Machiavellian, The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting looks past the fads to offer advice you can put into action today.
Paul Raeburn is a blogger, media critic, writer, and the author of several books. He contributes to Discover, Scientific American, the New York Times Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, among many others. Raeburn is a former senior editor and senior writer at Businessweek and former science editor and chief science correspondent at the Associated Press.
Kevin Zollman is a game theorist and an associate professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University who has authored over thirty peer-reviewed papers applying game theory to a wide variety of topics. His work has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, Scientific American, and elsewhere.
Paul Raeburn is a blogger, media critic, writer, and the author of several books. He contributes to Discover, Scientific American, the New York Times Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, among many others. Raeburn is a former senior editor and senior writer at Businessweek and former science editor and chief science correspondent at the Associated Press.
Kevin Zollman is a game theorist and an associate professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University who has authored over thirty peer-reviewed papers applying game theory to a wide variety of topics. His work has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, Scientific American, and elsewhere.
Reviews
“The small transactions of parenting―sharing, dividing, collaborating, and compromising―are fraught with peril. Solutions that feel fair are not always just, particularly in the eyes of our children. Paul Raeburn and Kevin Zollman achieve two incredible feats in The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting: they helped me find a way to be fair and just in my parenting while teaching me the basics of game theory. I absolutely loved this book, both as a parent, and as a nerd.”
“Raeburn and Zollman put the math on the back burner and bring the commonsensicality of the theory to the fore…There is a fluid, natural feel to the authors’ examples…Tantalizing perspectives on cultivating sharing, honesty, and cooperation via game theory.”
“With a light touch and sure-footed mastery of both child rearing and economics, Raeburn and Zollman bring humor and verve to a serious subject: how to negotiate with your kids in a way that will leave everyone…well, not happy, exactly, but with a sense of being treated fairly and with mutual respect. Read it and count on fewer fights.”
“The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting will teach you useful strategies from the world of game theory to add to your parenting repertoire. Even game theorists will marvel at Raeburn and Zollman’s ability to elucidate deep ideas and turn them into practical rules of thumb for raising children. Humorous, informative, and practical―you should even let your kids read it!”
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