We must avoid assuming that everything the analyst can perceive is perceived by the participants in a game, or that whatever exerts power of suggestion on the analyst does so on the participant in a game. In particular, game characteristics that are relevant to sophisticated mathematical solutions (except when the same solution can also be reached by an alternative, less sophisticated route) might not have this power of focusing expectations and influencing the outcome. They might have it only if the players perceived each other to be mathematicians.

XREF: Connects to Schelling's focal point theory and game theory's bounded rationality — the idea that mathematical elegance matters less than what players actually notice and expect.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 272