Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Quotes

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

We humans are really good at forming groups to compete, and then dissolving the groups and reforming them along different lines to compete in a different way.

As a goalkeeper you need to be good at organising the people in front of you and motivating them. You need to see what's going on and react to the threats. Just like a good manager in business.

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

In principle, every social situation involves strategic interaction among the participants.

Without game, men prey on each other.

My research career has been devoted to understanding human decision-making and problem-solving processes. The pursuit of this goal has led me into the fields of political science, economics, cognitive psychology, computer science and philosophy of science, among others.

Coaches are an integral part of any manager's team, especially if they are good pinochle players.

Game theory, however, deals only with the way in which ultrasmart, all knowing people should behave in competitive situations, and has little to say to Mr. X as he confronts the morass of his problem.

Part of being a successful leader is listening and looking for opportunities to bring people together.

An important part of leadership is being able to hold two things in your mind at once: Dealing with the reality, whatever it may be, and focus on hope for the future. Any leader helping an organization through challenges needs to be able to do both.

I've kind of found out that when I do get into trouble, that when I do have people on base, sometimes the best thing is to throw a little bit more off-speed, back off a little bit.

I have been doing this for a long, and it is the players who learn who you need to work with. You have to coach them to think and understand the game. If they cannot, then you have to tell them, 'You have to do this anyway,' but the best thing to do is say, 'Listen, if he is doing this, then maybe you have to do that.'

As a former NCAA basketball player, many of the skills I now rely on as a leader took root on the basketball court: teamwork, integrity, and resilience are just some of the traits I've carried over into my professional game.

The bottom line is the best way to lead is to play well.

Poker is about understanding human behavior and managing emotions - yours and the other guy's. That's huge in poker, and it's huge in business.

My best asset to my game is my IQ. I play the game thinking the game first.

When I meet with people who are ineffective managers with failing businesses, I can't change what they do - I have to change the way they think.

Even without tactical discipline, what is important for a team is having players with maturity and a sense of responsibility.

Life is very much about making the best decisions you can. So I think chess is very valuable.

Every manager must be prepared to face every situation.

When you are in a situation or a crisis, you need to define, what is the unique role that I can play?

A lot of what a military officer does is not just leading troops in combat. It's also doing budgets. It's solving complex problems. If you can sit down with warlords, you can certainly sit down with different parties and folks with different interests and come out with an amenable solution.

If you take 10,000 chimpanzees and cram them together into Wembley Stadium or the Houses of Parliament, you will get chaos. But if you take 10,000 people who have never met before, they can co-operate and create amazing things.

Actually, one of the fascinating things that I've learned playing chess is that the way you play chess is kind of like the way you live your life.