Introduction -- Inside game, outside game. Negotiating power ; Graduating into uncertainty ; Comparative advantage ; Game recap -- Choosing games. Skill versus luck ; Rules and starting conditions ; Marginal benefit and marginal cost ; Cheating ; When to challenge the rules ; The value of winning ; Changing goals ; Game recap -- Information is an advantage. Ultimatums ; Deception ; Fearing the unknown ; Negotiating under uncertainty ; Overthinking ; Mitigating risk ; Game recap -- Dreams of dream jobs. Differentiating yourself ; Selecting the optimal employer ; Moving for a new job ; Creating the perfect resumé ; Preparing for a job interview ; Playing the interview game ; Curating references ; Unanimous decisions ; Game recap -- Buying a home. Deciding to move ; Understanding the housing market ; Creating a housing budget ; Identifying needs and wants ; Avoiding common mistakes ; Bidding on a home ; Game recap -- Workplace conflict. Workplace bullies ; Employee satisfaction ; Gender stereotypes in the workplace ; Evade or confront? ; Identifying enemies and allies ; Signaling strength ; Game recap -- Getting promoted. The meritocracy myth ; The challenges of performance evaluations ; Backward induction: the secret path to victory ; Corporate hierarchies ; Influencing the kingmakers ; The importance of allies ; Game recap -- Balancing family and career. Social pressures and gender norms ; Marriage is a game ; The benefits of commitment ; Marriage as a financial strategy ; Working while pregnant ; Unconscious bias ; Discrimination and the persistence of stereotypes ; Game recap -- Knowing your worth. Reassessing inside options ; Understanding reference points ; Higher-order beliefs ; When the keep your mouth shut ; Signaling outside options ; Bluffing ; Knowing your worth ; Game recap -- Optimizing your life. When optimizing isn't an option ; Saving ; Investing ; Rebalancing work and life ; Game recap -- Selling a home. Assessing home values ; Preparing to sell ; Setting the price ; Selecting a buyer ; Game recap -- A code for winners -- Epilogue

"What economists know that we should know, translated for all of us. Should I buy or rent? Do I ask for a promotion? Should I tell people I'm pregnant? What salary do I deserve? Should I just quit this job? Common anxieties about life are often grounded in economics. In an increasingly win-lose society, these economic decisions-where to work, where to live, even how to live-have a way of feeling fixed and mistakes terminal. Daryl Fairweather is no stranger to these dynamics. As the first Black woman to receive an economics PhD from the famed University of Chicago, she saw firsthand how concepts of behavioral economics and game theory were deployed in the real world-and in her own life-to great effect. Hate the Game combines Fairweather's elite knowledge of these principles with her singular voice in describing how they can be harnessed. Her great talent, unique among economists, is her ability to articulate economic trends in a way that is not just informative, but also accounts for life's other anxieties. In Hate the Game, Fairweather fixes her expertise and service on navigating the earliest economic inflection points of adult life: whether to go to college and for how long; partnering, having kids, both, or neither; getting, keeping, and changing jobs; and where to live and how to pay for it. She speaks in actionable terms about what the economy means for individual people, especially those who have the sneaking suspicion they're losing out. Set against her own experiences and enriched with lessons from history, science, and pop culture, Fairweather instructs readers on how to use game theory and behavioral science to map out options and choose directions while offering readers a sense of control and agency in an economy where those things are increasingly rare"--