Micromotives and Macrobehavior

People take decisions, based on their environment, which is compromised of the decisions others have taken, based on their environment, and so on... Sometimes people have no information beforehand, so they have to guess what will the rest decide. For a book dealing with these questions, it's only natural to resort to game theory. Schelling extends the 1-vs-1 Prisoner's Dilemma to a multitude of persons taking part in it.Another major theme is social sorting, like how do neighbourhoods of blacks and whites form into clusters. Schelling's segregation model is now quite famous and I'd suggest you give it a look on-line for starters to get the basic picture of the book.Many examples are mentioned as to how our choices affect the demographics that interest us or how we sometimes fulfill our own "prophecies".I give it 4 stars, because it wasn't "pop" enough for me. The algebra was mild (and supposedly basic?), but I still couldn't do it, because I don't know s*** about algebra. Other than that, once you get the gist of reading the graphs on the last chapter, you'll start feeling like a genius.It's easy to read and it can be fun experimenting around with the models/graphs on your own.This is a book that shifts your perspective for good. You'll start thinking differently when you're watching groups of people cluster together now (e.g.: surfers vs swimmers at the beach).

Schelling pones an important question about the actual sociology. The game theory is sufficient for a preview of the future, almost in the sense that it can construct model apted to be useful in the reallity? The answer of the author is ambivalent, because he consider relevant for a good vision of the market the game theory approach, but he retains that it exists a valutation of the behaviors that is related a different aspects of the men personality. The question become more complex because Schelling give us several motivations about this fact, but in this context I wouldn't entry in other details, whom could be very nice if the attention in the lecture is a of a just type.

Schelling won a Nobel prize in 2005 for game theory analysis. This book describes how individual motivations contribute to larger behaviors, and group behaviors, which have a broader influence on society. This type of micro-motivation led heavily into the micro-targeting efforts in my book, "Cashing in on Cyberpower" as well as the analysis behind Cambridge Analytica scandals during 2016.

A very simply put argument that will be easy for the average reader to understand. Schelling is both compelling and has a modest style that allows for simplistic understanding of otherwise contentious concepts. If you are interested in economics or any social sciences it is a worthy read and very quick to get through.

Interesting look into behavior but repetitive and I really wanted to put it down. I was looking for something more like the "Tipping Point" and this reminded me of the time I sat next to a plastic bag salesman on a long flight; at first I was impressed that someone could know so much about plastic bags but by the end I put on my headphones. It does explain why diversity is such a hard goal to achieve but I didn't feel like it offered solutions, mainly more questions that after reading this book I was lacking energy to explore.

Este texto clásico de Schelling nos hace pensar en lo que creíamos obvio, para descubrir que lo trivial no es siempre simple y que, como lo indica el título, causas simples pueden producir resultados complejos. Uno de los textos básicos en el estudio de los sistemas complejos.

This is a delightful book. Schelling's writing style reminds me of Feynman, which I consider very high praise. The book is essentially Schelling playing with a variety of simple models of individuals making decisions with collective impact, and seeing what sort of surprising dynamics and equilibria can be found.

This book provides many examples that help the reader better understand the relationship between micro and macro. It is a good bood for those who are interested in agent based modeling.

Wouldn't recommend, very tiresome read and feels like each page is a labour to get through.

This is an important book, written by a Nobel prize winner, which is still relevant today. Most importantly you don't need to be an "academic" to understand it. An easy read in a chatty style.

Honestly - just buy it.

J'ai lu ce livre tellement de fois que je n'y apprends plus rien. Ce livre devriat être lu par tout ceux qui font des sciences sociales, économie bien sur aussi sociologie, psychologie sociale....

perfect many thanks