Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Stunning book, 11 out of 10

 Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman


Stunning book, 11 out of 10

 

 

Funny how I sometimes take a look at a book and say:

-          Nah, this would not do

-          And then it turns out to be outstanding

It happened with this book, because I used the short, automatic way of thinking, and I made the same mistake a few weeks ago with The Natural.

And I have to repeat

-          It was “legend-wait for it- ary”

To use the favorite expression of Barney from How I Met Your Mother.

There are plenty of fascinating and funny stories that bring an incredible insight into the way our minds work.

The subjects range from Israeli fighter jet pilots to hedge fund managers, from psychologists to economists.

Daniel Kahneman is a brilliant scientist and Nobel Prize laureate.

The epic book deals with a variety of subjects

-          We learn about flow, happiness, the gorilla in the room

-          And also pundits and their predictions, intuitions and…colonoscopy

So all one can do in a few notes is relate a few examples and invite anyone interested in a glorious book to take this one.

Daniel Kahneman has served in the Israeli Army and has designed some tests that have been used for years.

In one interaction with officers he was told by a participant that he is wrong to recommend using appraisal for good performance and avoid rebuffs:

-          When I praised a pilot for a good job, he did worse and on the contrary, when I yelled in one’s ear he would go on to do better

This is called “Regression to the mean”

We cannot stay in top form with peak performance indefinitely, and an exceptional performance is just that- an exception.

So after an outstanding execution, a less wonderful activity is bound to follow and vice versa- after a very bad act, things improve.

The author talks about Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and the example of the specialists who recognized a fake ancient statue in the Blink of an eye.

That is not intuition; it is experience and long learning.

Chess players become sensational if they practice for 6 hours per day for years, an argument that we find in Outliers.

 

Daniel Kahneman refers to this choice in this astounding book

We have two systems of thinking as the title indicates

-          With one, the fast system – we tend to make mistakes based on

-          What You See is All There Is

A principle explained in detail in the book

We can arrive at good and fast decisions, but they are based on experience and what we have learned with the second

-          Slower system

I can only repeat again and again-

-          This is a fantastic book

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