Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Quotes

There are cases when I can make myself better off by restricting my future choices and commit myself to a specific course of action.

We have zero strategic thinking out of our White House. And we have a national security structure that has lost its way when it comes to strategic thinking and strategic decision-making.

You make the right decision for the long run. You manage for the long run, and you continue to move to higher value. That's what I think my job is.

One might argue that proper understanding of any social situation would require game-theoretic analysis.

The real heart of strategy is the strategist.

I've always been kind of a strategic thinking person - I love sports for instance, but my interest in sports is 'cause I love watching strategy in action or playing it. I'm not into the drama so much, of the physical action. I'm interested in the coach and how he's strategizing.

Strategy was first used in Athens (508 BC) to describe the art of leadership used by the ten generals on the war council. Some argue for the more creative, human side, while others argue for the more analytic side of strategy.

If you know you don't have a win, then there's no use for you being in the game.

Strategy-making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes.

"What would I do if?.." By thinking tactically, we can more easily arrive at correct tactical solutions, and practice - even theoretical practice - tends to produce confidence in our solutions which, in turn, makes it easier for us, and thus quicker, to reach a decision.

Strategists who don’t take time to think are just planners.

Strategic thinking rarely occurs spontaneously

I use game theory to help myself understand conflict situations and opportunities.

Strategy is all very well, but it pays to give thought from time to time to the results.

At gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck.

The next move is always the test.

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car, the others, goats. You pick a door, say #1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say #3, which has a goat. He says to you: 'Do you want to pick door #2?' Is it to your advantage to switch your choice of doors?

The two most fundamental strategic choices are deciding where to play and how to win.

If his decision is correct, he will win the battle, even if it lasts longer than expected. If his decision is wrong, he will be defeated and he will have to start all over again-only this time with more wisdom. But once he has started, a warrior of the light perseveres until the end.

You win by struggle, and that requires understanding and serious analysis of the options and the circumstances, and then you can do a lot.

In my experience of large enterprises, I have found it is often a mistake to try to settle everything at once.

Sometimes you have to lose a piece to win a game.

If you don't have a viable strategy, you will be defeated by someone who does.

You politicians have got to look further ahead; you always got a Putter in your hands, when you ought to have a Driver.

I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves