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The Game Theory of Everythingsee the game you are already in
Reading level
The words people actually use at work and in the news.

16 domains

Literally everything

the same twenty shapes, wearing local clothes

The claim is not that game theory can be applied to these fields from outside. It is that each of them is already made of these shapes, and the people in it have their own names for them.

Every domain has a characteristic player it habitually leaves off the list, and the omission is never random — it is nearly always the party with no seat, no budget line and nobody to speak for them. Each page names that player first.

An empty courtroom seen from the back, two tables facing a raised bench.01
Law and CourtsLitigation is a bargaining game played in the shadow of an uncertain trial outcome.
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A large grid of identical pale squares, two of them picked out in brass, with a single standing figure beside the grid.02
Social MediaNetwork effects lock users in; the visible audience turns every exchange into a public game; attention is a commons.
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A wall of identical front pages hung in a grid, every one carrying the same blocks of text, with one figure standing before them.03
News and MediaPublication is a race with reputational stakes; verification is costly and its benefit is partly shared.
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Two figures at a table exchanging two different objects, a ledger open beside them.04
Markets and MoneyExchange is positive-sum; competition, pricing and contracting are where the strategic problems live.
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A semicircular chamber of empty seats facing a single lectern.05
Politics and VotingShort horizons, visible concessions and delegated power make politics a compound of commitment, chicken and principal–agent problems.
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An open-plan office at dusk with most desks empty and a few still lit.06
Work and CareersMetrics, promotion, hours and effort are agency and signalling problems dressed as culture problems.
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A kitchen table with two chairs pushed back and two half-finished cups on it.07
Family and RelationshipsLong horizons make cooperation rational; most conflict here is coordination failure and information asymmetry, not opposed interests.
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A row of empty waiting-room chairs along a corridor wall.08
Health and MedicinePublic goods, commons and severe information asymmetry, layered on top of an agency relationship.
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An empty classroom with chairs stacked on the desks and light through high windows.09
School and EducationCredentials function partly as signals, which makes education partly a positional arms race with no ceiling.
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A long border fence crossing empty ground, with a watchtower at each end.10
War and SecurityThe security dilemma: measures taken for safety are indistinguishable from measures taken for aggression.
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A dense server hall receding into the distance under a low ceiling of cable trays.11
Platforms and AINetwork effects produce winner-take-most; competitive dynamics produce a race where unilateral restraint is unrewarded.
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A dark street at night receding between buildings, one car at the far end under a light, and a large figure in silhouette in the foreground.12
Crime and PolicingEnforcement is an inspection game; deterrence depends on detection probability far more than on penalty severity.
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An empty stadium with a marked pitch and a single goal in view.13
Sport and CompetitionSport is the natural laboratory: strictly competitive play, doping dilemmas and rule-driven equilibria are all observable.
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A wide estuary at low water with the tide line marked across flat pale mud, one small figure standing on the shore.14
Climate and Shared ResourcesThe largest public-goods and commons problem there is, played by parties with no enforcer above them.
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A hall with rows of chairs set out and a table of things at the back.15
Faith and CommunityAssurance and repetition do the work; costly participation acts as a signal of commitment.
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Two coffee cups on a small round table, one chair pushed back.16
Dating and AttractionA matching market with severe information asymmetry, where costly signals do the work talk cannot.
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