Chapters 10-13 Summary and Analysis

In August 1949, Nash asked Albert Tucker to be his thesis advisor. Nash took the summer off after passing his general examinations. That fall he began to experience many intellectual ideas.

Nash met with von Neumann to discuss his ideas regarding game theory. They had opposing views of how people interact and von Neumann rejected Nash's approach. Nash continued thinking about games and developed an equilibrium point that could apply to more than two people and wasn't necessarily a zero-sum game. Fellow student Gale drafted a note of the form later and it appeared in the national Academy of Science monthly proceedings.

This was the basis for the first draft of his thesis which he mailed to Tucker who was in California. Tucker suggested revisions which Nash had to make. His twenty seven page thesis became the famous Nash equilibrium...