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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
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Thinking, Fast and Slow (original 2011; edition 2011)

by Daniel Kahneman (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
11,637225555 (4.11)179
Summary: Provocative book that suggests we are far less in control of how we think than we (or at least I) had any idea.

Things I liked:

Lots of evidence and experiments to back up his findings.

Provocative ideas that you can immediately apply to your own experience.

A good overarching model that flows nicely from introduction, body and conclusion. In particular I find a lot of non-fiction books like this that tender to wander or lose the plot in the last third of the length; I was very pleasantly surprised that this book didn't do that.

Things I thought could be improved:

Quite long, it took me a long time to get through it.

Highlight:

Heaps of great 'aha' moments but I think I really liked the section on the experiential self versus remembering self.
( )
  benkaboo | Aug 18, 2022 |
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Showing 1-25 of 208 (next | show all)
Dad gave me this book and I read it right away in the summer of 2020 while we were living in Escondido with the Zags, waiting to move in to our CPEN house. Need to reread this one soon. Has been referenced dozens of time in various classes and PME since I read it and I am embarrassed by my lack of recollection despite having read this cover to cover.
  SDWets | Feb 19, 2024 |
Very tedious reading. This book should have been half as long - maybe less. ( )
1 vote donwon | Jan 22, 2024 |
Over-rated. As often the case, a really interesting central idea, explained in a ten thousand word essay, wrapped in several hundred pages of justification. ( )
1 vote Parthurbook | Nov 6, 2023 |
A very good book, but not an easy book to read. This is in part because of the print size, which is miniscule. It has also to do, I feel, with the conclusions that the reader inevitably draws as they go through the text; namely, we are simply not as rational as we like to think we are. Still, it is a book that rewards persistence, and even aids it in one vital way (by breaking the text up into small sections). The accessibility of the writing style also helps counteract the aforementioned hindrances. Overall, well worth the read. ( )
  JJPCIII | Oct 20, 2023 |
Here's what I wrote in 2012 about this read: "Interesting and educational. A bit long, but I guess that is fast thinking. Made MGA thinking about intuition vs. analysis, and the power of the "fast" part of brain to jump to (often wrong) conclusions." ( )
  MGADMJK | Sep 6, 2023 |
This novel was a solid read but was slightly let down by its long-winded commentary on unrelated topics and the insistence that economics expects rationality from humans. Yes, I got it the first time!
It is striking how much even slightly-well-off people will argue about the irrationality of the masses and how much 'thinking' instead of 'feeling' they are - only to expose themselves as hypocrites in the next five minutes of conversation. Thinking, Fast and Slow tells us why. It is heartening to find that it's possible to improve these facets of our personality to the point where we're not dictated solely by our intuition. In good news for pedants everywhere, Kahneman concludes that it's difficult, albeit doable, to spot yourself slipping into a hasty decision - but you can ask others to check if you're doing so.
The analogy of system 1 ('gut feeling') vs system 2 (rational, but lazy) and the experiencing self vs remembering self were remarkable psychological constructions, and I could see how Kahneman got his Nobel. All in all, this is not just a read for economists and psychologists - it should be essential reading for everyone if you can get past the verbiage. ( )
  SidKhanooja | Sep 1, 2023 |
Our brains deal with the problems that confront us in daily life in two ways: the great bulk of them are handled by an associative, intuitive process that runs very fast and has a low energy cost, using a set of built-in heuristics to find the closest match to the problem we're confronted with in our memories of things that have happened before (rather like the way AI systems work, I suppose). Only when this level one system can't cope is the problem escalated to the much more costly mechanisms for rational, analytical processing of abstract ideas.

Back in 1969, the Israeli psychologist Kahneman and his late colleague Amos Tversky spotted that while this is an efficient way to deal with straightforward things like finding food and avoiding lions, it can lead us into making illogical choices when we are confronted with some of the more subtle problems of modern life. Our brains are lazy and often don't switch on the level two system until it's too late, so we can end up going with our immediate, intuitive response without thinking things through. We jump to conclusions, constructing causality where there isn't any, we don't cope well with statistical concepts (even if we are trained in their use), we underestimate the role of chance, we allow ourselves to be influenced by irrelevant factors that are there in front of us and ignore the stuff we can't see in that moment, and we are far too confident in our own opinions, amongst other things.

Kahneman's ideas — which are not universally accepted — have stirred up most dust in economics, where of course it is heresy to suggest that the choices humans make are anything other than free, rational, and selfish. He spends a lot of time on how we assess the desirability of investments, bets, insurance, and the like, and the many ways we get that wrong. But the ideas apply to all kinds of other areas as well, of course. He talks about things like the difficulty of predicting future performance in recruitment and staff reporting, or about the problems with subjective perceptions of pain and pleasure in things like clinical tests and quality-of-life studies. Kahneman doesn't go into the way people can be deliberately manipulated by triggering intuitive responses, but that's there in the background as well, naturally.

As always for a lay person reading a psychology book, there's a tendency to dismiss a large chunk of it as "just common sense" and another large part as "weird stuff that could only happen in a psychology experiment, not in the real world". But still, there's a lot that I feel it would have been useful to know earlier in my life, and maybe even to apply in practice. (Of course, at the moments when it was most relevant I was probably working with professional psychologists who did know all this stuff anyway, but they never explained it so clearly...) ( )
  thorold | Aug 25, 2023 |
An interesting book that causes you to rethink how you make decisions; gut feel for some things or more in-depth analysis for others (with the latter being mooted as the preferred approach). It was quite an academic and long repetitive read. ( )
  gianouts | Jul 5, 2023 |
The old line that true wisdom comes when you realize how little you know is brought to mind by this book which shows us that we often respond to the world using a pre-wired quick-acting, but deeply flawed system of mental function. The author, a Nobel prize laureate, describes his theory of fast and slow methods of thought, which, at first, seems to be an analytical version of the id and ego dressed up and without attribution, but as the stories are told and the experimental results accumulate, we see an extraordinary far-reaching concept that has consequences for all human activity. Included are: explanations of how con men and salesman trick us so easily, the difficulty of comprehending simple statistical concepts, one of the best explanations of regression to the mean that I have ever read, more support for efficient market theory and debunking of those who predict the future, the reason why tourists need to take pictures and a discussion of the remembering self that gave me insight into Proust, tips on hiring, the basis of intuition and much more. ( )
  markm2315 | Jul 1, 2023 |
Kahneman and Tversky's research into decision making and heuristics has enormous political implications, but the author wisely steers away from spelling these out -although he does mention that Milton Friedman's Chicago school of libertarian economics relies on individuals being rational actors. It is clear that the Chicago model is too simplistic and does not take into account the multiple ways that decision making can be manipulated by framing, anchoring, and other heuristic effects. Kahnemann also refers to Cass Sunnstein's "Nudge", which posits that freedom of choice can be maintained while still influencing people to make decisions that are beneficial to themselves and society. ( )
  jonbrammer | Jul 1, 2023 |
interesting book highlighting the multitude of mindbugs that may occur, presented (for the most part) in an understandable way to the average reader with no psychological background using real-world scenarios. Middle sections particularly strong. However, the number of concepts made it difficult to mentally integrate at times, and some concepts seemed repeated (without acknowledgment of this). Despite this, still incredibly eye-opening and applicable in many walks of life. ( )
  lukehardman | Jun 20, 2023 |
This is a fascinating book, but there's way too much of it. Kahneman examines two different parts of human brains, which he calls System 1 and System 2. System 1 could also be callsed instinct, or intiution: it is the part of our brain that makes rapid judgments, usually without our being aware that any judgements or decisions are happening. System 2 is the more intellectual part of the brain - it requires more deliberate effort to use. These two systems often come to different conclusions. The interplay between these two systems is fascinating.

Kahneman presents a pretty overwhelming amount of information about how these two systems interact. Each chapter describes multiple psychological studies and their results. After a few chapters, it was too much information for me to really sythesize, and all of the information started to blur together. I ended up skipping most of the middle of the book. I wish this had been a long article instead of an entire book, because there was such an overwhelming abundance of detail that it became hard to find any big-picture takeaways. ( )
  Gwendydd | Jun 10, 2023 |
This is the first full book I read by Kahneman and my impression is it could be seen as a good compendium of all his and Tversky's past theories, updated to this new notion of the system 1 / 2 of brain, which means a more intuitive (fast) thought and a more reflexive and concentrated thought (slow). Really useful, a bit too long and sometimes repetitive and maybe (but this is just an hypothesis of mine) is may just be a refresh of theories you already found in others Kahneman's books. ( )
  d.v. | May 16, 2023 |
This is the Bias Bible. If you want to get a brief overview of how your brain works, and lots of information on how you aren’t the rational actor you see yourself as, this is the book.


Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on human judgement covered in this book, and played a key role in the development of the field of behavioral economics. If you read one book on the brain, this is the one. ( )
  jdm9970 | Jan 26, 2023 |
Terrific book! Well written and thought-provoking. ( )
  steve02476 | Jan 3, 2023 |
Das Buch ist inhaltlich super, aber über weite Teile sehr trocken. ( )
  ddeimeke | Dec 19, 2022 |
Complex and very insightful. Required long breaks to absorb the ideas. There were huge informational takeaways that will enhance decision-making and either lessen anxieties or at least understand why emotions are suddenly evoked: rational versus irrational, limbic brain processing.

This book was well worth the months it took me to read. I cannot review it sufficiently to give it the credit deserved so do go and have a look at other reviews. ( )
  SandyAMcPherson | Nov 10, 2022 |
This is one of great book I've read. but still now irrelevant for my country. 4/5
  Azmir_Fakir | Oct 31, 2022 |
for peoples ( )
  sumaira4 | Sep 8, 2022 |
Thinking Fast and Slow is one of the best psychology books ever published. The life work of Nobel-prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahn e man, it outlines, better than anything else, the ways in which humans fool themselves and err when thinking. (Kahn e man and I sat down for an hour-long interview last year
  zainabkhan | Sep 7, 2022 |
In the first 250 pages of the book, it was interesting to read. But the second half was the most boring piece of writing that I have ever read, i would rather read my high school calculus book again instead of this.

But some other intuitive readers might find this book fascinating and I can’t tell you for sure to whether you should read it or not, after all my opinion might differ. But what confused me is the 5 stars reviews this book had when I was purchasing it. ( )
1 vote Ali.Alboainin | Aug 21, 2022 |
Summary: Provocative book that suggests we are far less in control of how we think than we (or at least I) had any idea.

Things I liked:

Lots of evidence and experiments to back up his findings.

Provocative ideas that you can immediately apply to your own experience.

A good overarching model that flows nicely from introduction, body and conclusion. In particular I find a lot of non-fiction books like this that tender to wander or lose the plot in the last third of the length; I was very pleasantly surprised that this book didn't do that.

Things I thought could be improved:

Quite long, it took me a long time to get through it.

Highlight:

Heaps of great 'aha' moments but I think I really liked the section on the experiential self versus remembering self.
( )
  benkaboo | Aug 18, 2022 |
This should probably be required reading for everyone in possession of a brain. ( )
  BibliophageOnCoffee | Aug 12, 2022 |
In order to write these comments I must set aside my natural system 1 mode of being (lazily automatic) and enter the far more arduous mode, System 2, and THINK for MYSELF. We don't spend as much time actually thinking in this mode as we would like to believe we do (which is itself a non-rational and emotionally based stance of System 1). Thinking is HARD WORK. Our brains and bodies are programmed to conserve energy as well as to protect us from . . . well . . . ourselves as THINKING not only uses a lot of energy but is often bewilderingly difficult and overwhelming. (As in, having to change your mind, admit you have no idea what to do, etcetera.) You know the difference between 1 and 2. The former tends to work smoothly and automatically and you like best being in that mode. Anything you prefer to put off or avoid doing altogether is probably a System 2 activity, from balancing your checkbook to deciding who to vote for or choosing the right school for your child or evaluating care for your grandmother. All of these choices most of you (including me) would love to leave to others. (And all too often do.)

Possibly the most crucial takeaway is accepting that we are not capable, not a single one of us, of making rational decisions all the time. Some may succeed more often than others, but really, no one. In fact, those who insist on rationality as the basis for all human endeavor are likely to be the most deluded of all. They want to believe themselves purely rational, but belief is emotionally based and not rational. Sorry.

Are you aware that the way a question is put to you affects how you answer it? (The researches call this 'focalism'.) So if you are asked to put a check in a box to donate your organs (on yr driver's license renewal) you are less likely to check that box. However, if you are asked to check that box if you DON'T want to donate your organs you leave the box blank. Why? Didn't you immediately have an ugh feeling for the former? I did. And pretty much no feeling at all at the second choice? I'm fine with that. You have to overcome an instinctive reluctance (System 1) to make the rational (System 2) choice. Or how about this. Are you aware that all unconsciously your answer to an unrelated question is affected by very recent luck or loss (literally, like finding a dime before someone asks you how you are feeling generally about almost anything, if it is a nice day or whatever.) Or that the way the Experiencing self, moment to moment, is supplanted by the story the Remembered self (which is a System 2 creation) has put together. (Official word is Duration Neglect and you add to it Peak-End Rule-that the most recent thing, the last thing in an experience is what you remember the most, both from System 1). System 1 is a mighty broth of basic instincts, deeply learned skills (driving would be one most of us share), habits that allow us all to make instant decisions, choices, opinions. Usually for the best, but not always. A useful acronym is WYSIATI (What You See Is What There Is) -- what you don't know or see before you, you don't (can't) include in your decisions. (Food labelling is fiendishly clever in this regard. As are many media outlets.) The reality of how we think and decide what to do with our lives is a complicated dance between the two and the better you are at recognizing which mode is needed, the better off you will be.

Much of the research involves having people choose between types of bets -- often bets that appear to be weighted one way or another because of the wording, but are either the same in outcome or biased the opposite of what your System 1 tends to be attracted to. System 2 has to be engaged to make the 'right' choice. I had difficulties with ALL of these questions as my instinct is to recoil (and I mean that) as I find betting and gambling so pointless (losing is the only outcome for the majority, duh) I couldn't wrap my head around any of it. I would likely have been dismissed by the researchers.

An intriguing find in the research is that as regards overall happiness or satisfaction our lives appear to depend on two foundations: Enough money for needs to be met -- curiously, more than that provides nothing, happiness and satisfaction flatten right out. The second piece is having goals and ambitions that are achievable (for some it is making money, btw). This fits in well with the (more philosophical) book on agency that I read not so long ago, by [[Agnes Caillard]]. Another undeniable factor is luck. Good or bad. Although the likelihood is, given the fact that this erratic thing, while beyond our control, tends to affect us all rather evenly--although in greater and lesser degrees depending on what risks a person takes, I would imagine. We must all take some, of course.

Another gem is that we tend to expect happiness from acquisition of material objects rather than from friendships and doing things with others. The officialese for this is using 'affective forecasting' that results in 'miswanting' (oh how I love that word!). Things never win out over fellowship. Take that to heart.

The end of each chapter has a kind of 'summary' in the form of statements that illustrate the points Kahneman just made and they are really helpful. He's a good writer, the clarity is stunning. I cannot recommend [Thinking Fast and Slow] more highly. It is a thoroughly System 2 read from beginning to end, so be patient with yourself if you do take it on. And please do.

***** and then some. ( )
  sibylline | Jul 13, 2022 |
This is the definitive book about cognitive biases and the mental systems that lead to them. It's definitive not only because Kahneman's role as one of the key researchers of the field, but also because of his ability to build up a mental model without losing rigor. Even though the book contains a lot of content, the key ideas are easy to remember because Kahneman builds off of a small number of fundamental concepts, primary the metaphor of the two system mind: System 1 is fast, automatic, and approximate and great at pattern matching. System 2 is slow and deliberative and requires a lot of effort to use. Building off of this, this book provides insight into everything from when intuition can be trusted to real world economics to how we evaluate our own happiness.

This book avoids being just a catalog of different cognitive biases. It also avoids overstating both the strengths and weaknesses of both our intuitive mind and our deliberative mind. It's a crucial read for anyone who wants to know how people actually work. ( )
  eri_kars | Jul 10, 2022 |
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