Thinking, Fast and Slow

In the last few years two books took me FOREVER to get through. The first was Daniel Dennett's "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" and the second is Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow." What caused this? What do they have in common? Both books explain, in minute detail, simple concepts with immensely far-reaching implications, and both have been after the slog the most intellectually rewarding reading of my adult life. Where to begin I have a number of theories running around in my head, and occasionally [...]

An unrelentingly tedious book that can be summed up as follows. We are irrationally prone to jump to conclusions based on rule-of-thumb shortcuts to actual reasoning, and in reliance on bad evidence, even though we have the capacity to think our way to better conclusions. But we're lazy, so we don't. We don't understand statistics, and if we did, we'd be more cautious in our judgments, and less prone to think highly of our own skill at judging probabilities and outcomes. Life not only is uncerta [...]

This is a fascinating book. Reading this book means not having to read so many others. For example, you could avoid having to read, Sway, Blink, Nudge and probably a dozen or so other books on Behavioural Economics. And the best part of it is that this is the guy (or, at least one half of the two guys) who came up with these ideas in the first place. I was thinking that perhaps the best way to explain those other books would be to compare them to Monty Python. I want you to imagine something - s [...]

If your objective, like it is when one finishes reading a self-help book, is to implement what Mr. Kahneman has to say in real life and benefit from it, I should warn you, you will be sorely disappointed. Believe it or not, in my opinion, I believe Mr. Kahneman is telling you exactly that in this book - that whether you like it or not, your entire life is guided or may I say decided by two fundamental ideas and that there is very little you can do to change it, period. Mr. Kahneman is probably t [...]

I kind of want to cut this book in half, praise the first part, and stick the second part in some corner to gather dust. Not that the second part is bad, mind you; the entire book is well-written and obviously the product of someone who knows their field. There’s just a lot of it. Thinking, Fast and Slow is kind of like a guest who shows up to your party and then dazzles everyone with an impromptu, 15-minute oration on the geopolitical situation in South Ossetia; and, everyone applauds and tur [...]

Hands down, one of the best books in its genre. The book is a lengthy, self-conscious and a challenging read but highly recommended if you're interested in why human beings behave the way they behave. It's given me so much 'oh snap, so that's why we're so dumb' moments that at this point I don't even want to admit I'm a human to any space-time traveling race that comes in collision of 21st century Earth.Citing behavioral research studies, he's convinced me that human confidence is a measure of w [...]

Thinking, Fast and Slow is just okay. It's being marketed as a book on psychology (and economic psychology, in particular) for the layperson. I'm not sure if other laypeople agree, but this wasn't really for me. And it's not that the prose is too technical (okay, sometimes it is) but rather that Kahneman is stuck somewhere between academic technicalities and clear expressive prose. Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in policy and enforcement. You can read [...]

This book had me laughing and smiling, more than many a book described in its blurb as side-splittingly funny or something similar because I recognised the cognitive disillusions described in this book as my own and in any case I am the kind of person who if they fall into a good mood wonders if it's due to the pint and the pie that was eaten earlier.In my case the preacher wasn't talking to the choir, but I had been to the church before and enjoyed the services. It doesn't set out to be a new b [...]

It is very difficult to judge, review or analyze a book that basically challenges the very idea of human “Rationalism”. Are humans perfectly rational? This dude, Daniel Kahneman, got a Nobel Prize in Economics for saying they are not. An ordinary person might have been treated with glare or a stinging slap if he said that to someone’s face. We simply don’t like being told that we are not very rational and certainly not as intelligent as we think we are. Hidden in the depths of our consci [...]

Whew! Wrestled this one down to the ground. It's got so much in it; I've got all I can for now. I'm leaving it out in the living room for now, though--for refreshers.The author's aim is to prove to us that we are not rational beings to the extent we think we are, that evolution has seen to that. And that being the case, the book outlines what we need to know so as not to mess up decisions like we have been doing--like we all do. And he's made it accessible. He pulls you in. You will get your sha [...]

This is an excellent book about how we think, written by a Nobel-prize-winning economist. Kahneman explains how two "systems" in the mind make decisions. "System 1" is the fast, intuitive aspect of the mind. "System 2" is the slower, logical and reasoning part of the mind. We generally make decisions quickly with the System 1, often because System 2 is simply--lazy. It takes effort to think things out rationally, and our rational minds are not always up to the job. This book is a long, comprehen [...]

Freeman “Dyson Sphere” Dyson wrote the New York Times review, which has me swooning right there. Dyson was a particularly apt pick because Kahneman helped design the Israeli military screening and training systems back when the country was young, and Dyson at 20 years old cranked statistics for the British Bombing Command in its youth. Dyson was part of a small group that figured out the bombers were wrong about what mattered to surviving night time raids over Germany; a thing only about a q [...]

It's a fascinating study of the mind, how people make decisions, and how the decision-making process can be improved.

My issue with this book, which is one I've tossed aside after 60 pages, is not so much that it's poorly done or that it's hard to understand - in fact, the exact opposite is true.The issue is that this book is simply more in depth about psychology and psychological processes than I truly have a short-term interest in. This is more the type of book you keep near your desk or bedside, read a 12 page chapter or so, and digest. This may be a book I need to own and do that with as opposed to tear thr [...]

Reading "Thinking, Fast, and Slow", .(book choice for this month's local book club), was not exactly bedtime reading for me. I had already pre- judged it before I started reading ( certain I would discover I'm a FAST INTUITIVE - type thinker ( quick, often influenced by emotion). Once in awhile I use basic common sense - logic . but even, it is usually with 'righteous emotions'. Just being honest!I understand this is an intellectual -giant- of - a -book about "How we think"Thinking 'deeply' abo [...]

Excellent book that should be of interest to those interested in Julian Jaynes's ideas on consciousness. This book could probably have been titled Thinking Non-Consciously and Consciously.

t admitted a bit of doubt when I first started this - the very concepts of Thinking, Fast and Slow, are evident to the student who has had Psych 101 - there are two basic modes of thinking. Automatic processing, which is described as System 1, which is easy, non-attentive, intuitive thinking, and controlled processing, or System 2 - the 'attentive', reasoned, detail-oriented part of the mind. There are also some basic principles, such as heuristics ('shortcuts' of thinking, and biases. Yet this [...]

1- دانیل کانمن در این کتاب به خطاهایی می‌پردازد که ما انسانها به دلیل کارکرد فعال سیستم 1 و تنبلی سیستم 2 انجام می‌دهیم. خطاهایی که حتی ما انسانها بعضیها را به عنوان خطا نمی‌شناسیم، باور داریم و البته به طور روزمره با آنها مواجهیم. از نظر کانمن راه جلوگیری از خطاهایی که از سیست� [...]

Mr. Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, explores the general subject of how and why we frequently make irrational decisions. We've all seen articles over the years on various aspects of this phenomenon, but I venture to say that never before have the various aspects and permutations been explored in this depth and specificity. Mr. Kahneman has spent much of his life researching the subject, and since the book includes both his research and that of others, it must stand as the definitive compendium o [...]

What a monstrous chore to read! I've been working on this book since September or August (4-6 months) and just could not take reading it for more than a few minutes at a time. Many times did it put me to sleep. The book covered a lot of great material and really fascinating research, but oftentimes in such plodding, pedantic, meticulous detail as to nearly obfuscate the point. I have heard of the majority of the research (or at least their conclusions) as well, so while I thought it offered exce [...]

Reading "Thinking, Fast, and Slow", .(book choice for this month's local book club), was not exactly bedtime reading for me. I had already pre- judged it before I started reading ( certain I would discover I'm a FAST INTUITIVE - type thinker ( quick, often influenced by emotion). Once in awhile I use basic common sense - logic --(not often)--just being honest! I rather trust my gut! I understand this is an intellectual -giant- of - a -book about "How we think"."Thinking deeply about how we thin [...]

In "Thinking, fast and slow" the Nobel laureate Danny Kahneman summarizes his life long work mostly done with his collegue (and Nobel corecipient) Amos Tversky in the field of cognitive psychology and decision making.There has been an outcrop of books on this topic in the recent years (Ariely and Lehrer being the bigger names) and there is a significant overlap with similar books. However, for the seriously interested I'd recommend to start here. This is the original reference, the user manual f [...]

A long book that requires real mental exertion, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a worthwhile read by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman. It delves into the two complex systems of the mind. System 1 is impulsive, emotional, and often led astray, while System 2 is rational, thoughtful, and takes more time to makes decisions. He analyzes how humans use (and sometimes fail to use) both systems, and the resulting implications on topics ranging from how we perceive happiness to behavioral economics.Thinking, F [...]

I haven't felt so stimulated to re-think my thinking ever since I encountered Edward de Bono's books a dozen years ago. A text like this is especially instructive when you consider yourself an "outside-the-norm" person; it comes and beats you with a vengeance, time and again, as you try the mental problems inside for yourself--and fail and fail and fail. A lesson in humility, indeed. :)I was particularly happy to find out:- why a single quarrel can ruin a friendship of many years- what is the ra [...]

One of the best books I have ever read in my life (if not the best). It lays the foundation to unbiased approach to thinking. You need to have a look at how cognitive biases limits your thinking big time.

I feel this book richly deserves its status. Kahneman has handed over the rich & surprising fruits of a lifetime of creative thought and research, in a well-organised book free of academiese (hurrah!) He also makes the material interactive by inviting us to do little mental activities to illustrate his simple study methods and assist the delight of recognition that makes this such an enjoyable read.One of his goals is to provide ways to talk about and tackle some everyday problems by conside [...]

Behavioural economics: A very rational explanation of why Humans are not rational beings. Which is NOT to say that we are irrational. Just not always terribly consistent. That’s OK.A bit repetitive, parts of it were familiar from other books like Irrationality, and then there were parts that lost me completely, where even when I kicked my indolent system 2 into slovenly, grudging action, the sheer arithmetics of some examples just would not allow themselves to be beaten into submission, no mat [...]

Ξεκινώντας αυτό το βιβλίο, διάβασα στο οπισθόφυλλο ‘’ ένα βιβλίο για την κοινωνική σκέψη, στην ίδια κατηγορία με τον Πλούτο των Εθνών του Adam Smith και την Ερμηνεία των ονείρων του Sigmund Freud ‘’, το οποίο υπέγραφαν μεγάλα ονόματα, σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο, στον τομέα της ψυχολογίας κ [...]

Okay, yeah, this has to go on the to-be-read shelf. And the over-stuffed cognition shelf. Hey, at least I was reading Kahneman before he won that Nobel Prize, before he got really popular. But I have to admit I never actually finished his Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases — it was due back at the library when I was only halfway through. That is a slow, engrossing grind of an academic tome, though.All the reviews have been glowing. Kahneman is golden, of course — he's ascende [...]

Kahneman is a brilliant thinker who's small experiments cracked the foundations of neo-classical/rational choice theory. His collections like Choices, Values and Frames are terrific reading, full of extraordinarily disorienting observations of actual human behavior. That said, this book was a bit of a disappointment. In this book, Kahneman weaves together a series of ideas based on his experiments and the experiments of like-minded researchers, and the effect is underwhelming. Gone is the carefu [...]