Strategic Thinking (Game Theory)

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Can you imagine a fictional writer could have a strong understanding of strategic thinking processes that transcends into the world of game theory? One of the best authors of our times has been broken down and analyzed to show readers how that person used strategic thinking to create socially driven stories that trigger something deep in our psyche. You probably already know as a reader of my works that strategic thinking is how we manifest self-protection through the disciplines of karate and martial practices. 

In the next section I provide some notes from that reading. This is a work in progress and sooner or later you will want to return to read any relevant changes. Let’s begin…

Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving success in a game or other endeavor. As a cognitive activity, it produces thought. 

• Know: Observe and Seek Trends: trends in this article is how participants in the discipline act, react and the needs of the people to expand, grow and evolve in the martial arts and karate regardless of the intent, i.e., sport vs. protection/defense vs. military/civil authority needs, etc. 
• Think: Ask the Tough Questions: All questions need to be addressed; all questions need to be assessed properly both mentally and physically since this particular discipline may need to achieve results with physical violence. 
• Speak: Sound Strategic: using the appropriate language and language patterns of a beneficial and positive orientation to achieve evolutionary progress. 
• Act: Make Time for Thinking and Embrace Conflict: Making time before the critical mass is achieved where damage and death are on the table. Knowing and understanding not just the obvious levels of conflict and violence…knowing and understanding even the lowest levels of aggression, conflicts and violence. Only by embracing those various levels from almost benign to the most egregious of war and predatory violence can we truly understand and create a system that will provide answers. 

AND

1. use the left (logical) and right (creative) sides of their brain: the negative in a positive light; the positive to bolster the negative toward lessons learned; using all facets of thinking, analysis and the synthesis of both old and new toward a creative answer to present moment situational issues. 
2. They are amazingly aware and perceptive: an open mind that challenges self and others especially that of perceive masters and experts to remove as many biases and cognizant dissonances to see beyond current beliefs and constructed memories to create greater possibilities that will achieve success. 
3. committed lifelong learners: not just to practice the familiar, to embrace the unknown and to discover the unknown unknowns. 
4. take time out for themselves: to practice and live a balanced existence meaning to work hard and to relax positively. 
5. committed to and seek advice from others: only through a group exchange, both within a group and with others external, can the human mind process necessary data to create a path and process that will be successful. 
6. the ability to balance their tremendous amount of creativity with a sense of realism and honesty about what is achievable in the longer term: the power of positive thinking, both individual and in group dynamics that understand how biases and dissonances can mist the air, create a fog hard to see beyond and make the black harder to penetrate toward a creative, positive and beneficial dynamic of both personal and group progress. 
7. the ability to be non-judgmental and they do not allow themselves to be held back or restricted by judging their own thinking or the thinking of others when ideas are initially being developed and shared: open minded creative exchanges without judgement. 
8. the ability to be patient and to not rush to conclusions and judgments: self-explanatory.  

In karate, martial disciplines as well, you can imagine just how critical strategic thinking is, not just in the actions taken against physical violence, a person able must consider strategic thinking long before resorting to violence of any kind. The more time and energy spent on the application of strategic thinking in all aspects of karate and martial arts, the less time spent having to make up time to achieve goals in self-protection. The old saying, “The More you Sweat in Training, the Less You BLEED in War,” applies here as well. “The More You Sweat in Appropriate Training and Practices, The Less You Have to RESORT to Physical Violence for Self-Protection.” 

You probably already know that many of the models taught in regard to self-protection/defense are lacking in the very core traits that make for strategic thinking. You can readily see in many dojo a “canned program” is used for convenience and gratification reasons, can you not? If you embrace inconvenience and delay a drive for instant gratifications, then you can perceive and believe how strategic thinking enhances your abilities and skills all through a drive in effort to remain open minded to all possibilities regardless. 

As to sport karate and martial arts strategic thinking, even in the more dangerous modes of self-protection, benefit from another familiar theory, “Game Theory.” Here are my notes on game theory:

Game theory: the analysis of strategies for dealing with competitive situations where the outcome of a participant's choice of action depends critically on the actions of other participants. Game theory has been applied to contexts in war, business, and biology. In some respects, game theory is the science of strategy, or at least the optimal decision-making of independent and competing actors in a strategic setting.

Game theory branches out strategic thinking to embrace the next group of traits and theories as follows in my notes:

Rational Choice Theory: Rational being instrumental, calculated, calm, deliberate, knowledgable, individualistic action contrasted by impetuousness, emotionality, ignorance, ideological bias, sentimentality, and social-mindedness.  Rational choice is described as payoff maximization. Payoff maximization is about choices, decision-making, where the person in receipt of said payoff comes out better once received. The best of all is to make a rational choice from a neutral un-emotionally involved logical-like decision where the best outcome is the payoff. RCT is about two persons and when three or more are involved then we need “game theory.” 

In game theory one must contemplate possibilities then make a decisions accordingly with the objective of max payoff. One person who is dealing with two other persons then has to take the decision to what will cause both of those persons to accept a possible outcome beneficial to themselves while reacting the original person’s objectives and payoff. 

Which people are involved: what possible choices each person has; how hey feel about the possible outcomes. When we deal with game theory where rational choice is involved, the participants are to be influenced and through suggestions manipulated in making a decision that appears to be what they want while providing the persuader the payoff they are seeking.

Can you imagine how one applies empathy in life, the same process as you already know applies to how we achieve success in all facets of self-protection from the very mundane avoidance by not being there all the way up to the dangers of applying physical violence to end physical violence for self-protection. 

This involves another quote I like, "In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of." - Dr. George Miller, Psychologist. In order to accomplish this feat one must get into another’s mind, a daunting task even in the best of situations. This brings up another theory, the theory of mind:

Theory of Mind: understanding that the other persons mind is different from yours. Understanding another persons preferences will be different from yours. Theory of mind depends on that persons environment, age, perceptions, knowledge and understanding along with experiences. In short, “culturally specific knowledge and understanding are necessary, actually required for self-protection.” 

Note: Keen visual detail is common in the autistic spectrum; a strong orientation toward literality is also in the autistic spectrum; 

To infer the motivations of others, you observe their actions and statements, as well as their facial expressions and body language. Men are worse at identifying peoples mental states. 

Strategic thinking might depend on one’s ability and training, also on the kind of situation of a given moment might involve. 

Perhaps the most advanced skill involved in strategic thinking is coming up with suggestions to influence, manipulate, and plans, creating situations in which people act in such a way as to produce the desired outcome. Coming up with effective plans involves creativity and ingenuity and is not easy to teach. 

This, as you can imagine, leads back into a variety of subjects that should hold more importance in training and practice, this allows less need for the physical methodologies that lead us into the path of the tiger, the path that is legal self-defense, defense. 

In strategic thinking, game theory and theory of the mind it is necessary, as you probably already know, to achieve an interdependent self, a self that comes to rely and depend on other people that is the hallmark of group dynamics, a survival thing, that the groups interdependences is dependent on each member of the group. 

My notes also say:

Interdependent Self-Construals Definition. Self-construal refers to the way in which a person thinks about and defines the self. ... An interdependent self-construal, because of its emphasis on relationships and groups, is thus one in which the self is seen as fundamentally embedded in the larger social world.

So, you see and can imagine the importance and sooner or later come to a greater understanding of a complex and complicated and comprehensive model that everyone needs to achieve and teach, train and practice, to really reach a solid principled based multiple method application that goes from simple avoidance, to escape and evade , up to deescalation; and when as a last resort, you probably already know whats coming, the need to apply aggressive physical violence to end aggressive physical violence against self and others. 

If you take this and incorporate it into your dojo, then you will see, feel and perceive impressive results that when you need them the most, will be there for you. 

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