Thinking Strategically by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff

This comes across as an ElementsOfStyle for business strategy, if you follow its precepts, you get a minimum bound on your performance. Dixit and Nalebuff run through a set of analytical tools: thinking backwards from the end condition, payoff matrices, and applying logic. As an introduction to analytical reasoning in games, this works well. As an intro to real life, it comes up short.

Determining boundary conditions (minimum acceptable offer for you or someone else) works well as the first step in any negotiation. Following on from that remains a Great Unknown to this book. Perhaps in 50 years, we'll have the psychology to push further. Granted, even then, we'll still be able to use the tools covered in this book.

The case studies at the end of the text remain the most enjoyable part. You'd almost think the authors were professors at a major university.