My Personal Debt to John Nash

Why did I even take Economics as a freshman engineering major at Youngstown State? It was a sort of happy accident, but there I was, surrounded by business majors, in Microeconomics*. I remember that the first textbook chapter tried to summarize many key concepts of Economics, doing its best to sell the field to often bored or distracted students. But I became hooked, entranced by the idea that Economics is not just a study of finance and transactions, but a study of thought and attitude as well. The ideas of sunk cost and opportunity cost intrigued me. And then we got to the Prisoner’s Dilemma…

(via nationalaffairs.com)

Wait wait, this field has games? with math? and behavioral aspects? and strategies? WOW!

Game theory proved to be so intriguing to me because it showed how math, language/communication, and psychology all intersected. The precise phrasing of the game has a huge effect on what each player can do and attain. The mathematical modeling aspect can yield surprisingly deep insight into human behavior. I was a freshman in 1998. Much of the behavioral economics boom and Freakonomics had not yet flourished. But the textbook held enough detail to captivate me of what already was and what could be.

Like many incoming college students, I was interested in many topics at once. But it seemed like I would have to give some of them up. I was assuming, for example, that I could not do creativity and technical topics, or English and math together. What John Nash and game theory did for me, in a way I’ve only appreciated more recently, is make interdisciplinary thinking and research possible. No, I didn’t have to leave communication or creativity behind to study math or economics.

And so, eventually, I took other Economics courses in college, studied Game Theory in several different classes in grad school, and used it in my PhD dissertation. I’m still finding new ways of how much Game Theory meant to my interests and passions. Thus, along with many other students and scholars, I mourn the passing of John Nash.

*The instructor was Richard Bee, and his wry humor also contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the class.