Poundstone winds a von Neumann biography, history of the bomb, and a history of game theory into one package. It works. It's also a nice reminder of simpler times, when one person could know everything, when the world was bipolar, and game theory was stuck in binary oppositions, too.

I revered von Neumann and thougut game theory was important. I read this book and found out how flawed both are. Very interesting.

A really good history of the legend that is John von Neumann, game theory and the cold war.
It covers a lot of how game theory progressed and the applications to the on going changes with US/Russian relations.
If I could knock half a point off because of the slow last chapter I would, but I can't. Still a totally worthwhile read though.

I'm still waiting on a proper full Von Neumann biography. If anybody knows one, give me a shout!

I never get tired of reading anecdotes of John von Neumann's mind. After two hours of RAND scientists pleading von Neumann to design a more powerful computer in order to solve a problem they deemed too complex for their current computer, von Neumann said "Gentlemen, you don't need a new computer. I have just solved the problem." Legendary.

The prisoner's dilemma is frustratingly vexing. I can only draw a few conclusions:

1) If we each were willing to be made a fool, none would be foolish at all.
2) Individual interests too easily topple the collective good.
3) The only "solution" to the prisoner's dilemma is to avoid prisoner's dilemmas.

tit for tat feels reasonable, but someone's gotta stop tatting

278p

This was fascinating, and a good change of pace from what I normally read. If only it weren’t so applicable to our current state of the world...

Bit of a mixed bag; on three related subjects (nucleair arms race, game theory, and Von Neumann). I liked the game theory part best, but would probably prefer a book only on that topic

See my Twitter thread https://twitter.com/wilte/status/1173167932182073344?s=19

Actually this was really interesting and accessible even for a non-math-brain like me. The parts about von Neumann and the pre-cold-war mindset were fascinating though some of the bits about the Bomb did drag. And I actually understood all of the parts about game theory :)