Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a book by Daniel Kahneman that explores the ways in which the human mind processes information and makes decisions. The book is divided into two parts, each focusing on one system of the human thinking.

“System 1” is fast, automatic, and effortless, and is responsible for intuitive and emotional responses. It is the part of the brain that we use when we quickly and automatically react to stimuli, such as when we reflexively jump out of the way of a speeding car. It’s also the part responsible for most of our cognitive biases.

“System 2”, on the other hand, is slow, deliberate, and effortful, and is responsible for logical and rational thinking. It is the part of the brain that we use when we consciously and deliberately think through a problem or decision.

Throughout the book, Kahneman uses a wide range of examples and experiments to illustrate the ways in which our two systems of thinking can influence our decision-making and behavior. He also discusses the various biases and heuristics that can affect our thinking, and provides practical advice on how to avoid common pitfalls and make better decisions.

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a fascinating and thought-provoking book that offers valuable insights into the human mind and how it processes information. For me it falls into the same (now pretty large) category of must-read books such as Factfulness, Enlightement Now, or Nonviolent Communication.

Notes

• We operate on two systems

  • System 1 automatic and quickly, little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control, runs automatically and can’t be stopped, error-prone
    • e.g. the fight or fleet response, orient to the source of sound, compare distance of objects, interpret facial experssions etc.
  • System 2 effortful, allocates attention, hard to use for several activites at once, used when we need to compute or reason, slow but reliable
    • e.g. count occurances, focus on certain person in discussion, deliberately used to control System 1

• Heuristics and System 1

  • to quickly process stimuli System 1 relies on heuristics, often inaccurate
  • heuristics:
    • associations and priming
      • associations - lime == green, doctor == clever, doesn’t have to be true
      • priming - common associations that move us in particular direction or action
      • e.g. if we are hungry we recognize the word soup easier, the effects are not large but can be used to affect people
    • cognitive ease
      • we are trying to get from system 2 (effortful) to system 1 (automatic)
      • e.g. you can make people believe falsehoods by frequent repetition, simple language, quotes, and memorable phrases
      • stocks with memorable/pronnounceable tickers do better over time
    • jumping to conclusions
      • WYSIATI = What You See Is All There Is - system 1 draws conclusions on readily available information
      • e.g. the confirmation bias = we are more open and looking for an evidence that confirms our believes
    • answeing the easier question
      • we simplify hard questions to easier once
      • e.g. “How happy you are with your life” to “What’s your current mood”
    • law of small numbers
      • small sample sizes - we make decisions on insufficient or unrepresentative data
    • anchors
      • priming the mind with an expectation
      • e.g. setting the intial bid in an offer very high primes the other party to bid higher
    • availability
      • we give more weight to recent events
      • good mood positively affect performance of system 1, on the other hand being tired makes it even worse
  • biases and errors of sytem 1:
    • once wrong assumption is “accepted” it triggers associative mechanism, spreading relative ideas through our system
    • loss aversion - we prefer no changes even if they would benefit us in the long run

Info

Title: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Daniel Kahneman
ISBN10: 0606275649
ISBN13: 9780606275644