Paperback, 512 pages
English language
Published Aug. 1, 2012 by Penguin Group.
Kahneman introduces two modes of thought - system 1, fast and intuitive, and system 2, slow and reasoned - and explores how these modes effect behavior, particularly judgement and decision making.
Sadly this could be a better book if it was half the length. Rather repetitive read. Interesting topic nonetheless. But be warned. It is a bit dated. Some of the study results have been proven to be incorrect.
Interesting, but long to read.
Rather average, same ideas and findings being chewed for hou...pages.
Boring. Pseudoscientific
I listened to the audiobook.
The beginning 20% was interesting, and the 20% at the end was helpful. There were some great insights sprinkled around the bits in between, but ultimately the book seemed to bog down in the middle and lose its way.
I may have come into this book with wrong expectations, so that might color this review. I was hoping for a deep look into how humans think with "intuition" vs how slow, logical processing works in our brains. However, the book quickly seemed to evolve into a listing of interesting (or not) statistics and studies.
I listened to the audiobook.
The beginning 20% was interesting, and the 20% at the end was helpful. There were some great insights sprinkled around the bits in between, but ultimately the book seemed to bog down in the middle and lose its way.
I may have come into this book with wrong expectations, so that might color this review. I was hoping for a deep look into how humans think with "intuition" vs how slow, logical processing works in our brains. However, the book quickly seemed to evolve into a listing of interesting (or not) statistics and studies.
A run-down of the psychology of action from one of the leading experts in the field. Nice flow throughout this book. Although some of the experimentation was dubious, the gist - why we act the way we act, impulsively or methodically - was well explored and the interactivity of puzzles in the book was entertaining (sometimes patronising). Worth a read.
An interesting look into how we make decisions... and fallacies.
An impressive book based on studies that mostly hold up (except for the priming stuff[1]). There are some interesting problems with Kahneman’s theory, though. Gigerenzer’s [2] interprets a lot of the studies that Kahneman cites in a different, yet also meaningful way: A lot of the alledged biases disappear when questions are asked slightly different; "useless information" actually influences decisions since in real world situations, information is shared with intent; there seem to be no two separate systems in the human mind.
Gigerenzer’s criticizm is focussed on study results and psychology. Culturally it is also interesting how beloved the book is in the tech industry. Tamsin Shaw [3] points out the influence the book (or the research direction it comes from) had on tech industry’s attempts to use biases in their favor.
The worldview put forward is one in which people are insufficient computers, which, unable to do the needed …
An impressive book based on studies that mostly hold up (except for the priming stuff[1]). There are some interesting problems with Kahneman’s theory, though. Gigerenzer’s [2] interprets a lot of the studies that Kahneman cites in a different, yet also meaningful way: A lot of the alledged biases disappear when questions are asked slightly different; "useless information" actually influences decisions since in real world situations, information is shared with intent; there seem to be no two separate systems in the human mind.
Gigerenzer’s criticizm is focussed on study results and psychology. Culturally it is also interesting how beloved the book is in the tech industry. Tamsin Shaw [3] points out the influence the book (or the research direction it comes from) had on tech industry’s attempts to use biases in their favor.
The worldview put forward is one in which people are insufficient computers, which, unable to do the needed calculations, need to resport to "cheap" heuristics, leading to irrational decisions. However, the view on “irrationality” is bound to assuming that decisions should be evaluated mathematically, against an ideal platonistic world, showing “irrationality” there and allowing to mark the decision as biased – instead of considering the social and material situation in which people are acting.
[1] replicationindex.com/2017/02/02/reconstruction-of-a-train-wreck-how-priming-research-went-of-the-rails/
[2] Gigerenzer, Gerd. Rationality for Mortals: How People Cope with Uncertainty. Evolution and Cognition. New York ; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
[3] Shaw, Tamsin. “Invisible Manipulators of Your Mind.” The New York Review of Books, April 20, 2017. www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/04/20/kahneman-tversky-invisible-mind-manipulators/.
This is my second reading of this book. I expect I’ll read it again a few more times.
It is useful to anyone who can follow some basic scientific reasoning (simple statistics, using only basic arithmetic and reports of experiments).
It remains useful even if you have more advanced statistical, psychological and economic knowledge because one of its aims is to show you how many humans, even experts, engage their fast, heuristic reasoning unless something triggers their slow, logical reasoning, and the fast process is subject to illusions similar to optical illusions. These leave us feeling certain of something that is wrong. Just as with many optical illusions, even when we know that things are not as they seem, the heuristic illusions remain in spite of our "slow thinking" knowledge.
If you read this book, you will have a significant set of new thinking tools and, although you will still …
This is my second reading of this book. I expect I’ll read it again a few more times.
It is useful to anyone who can follow some basic scientific reasoning (simple statistics, using only basic arithmetic and reports of experiments).
It remains useful even if you have more advanced statistical, psychological and economic knowledge because one of its aims is to show you how many humans, even experts, engage their fast, heuristic reasoning unless something triggers their slow, logical reasoning, and the fast process is subject to illusions similar to optical illusions. These leave us feeling certain of something that is wrong. Just as with many optical illusions, even when we know that things are not as they seem, the heuristic illusions remain in spite of our "slow thinking" knowledge.
If you read this book, you will have a significant set of new thinking tools and, although you will still be subject to the errors, you may be able to work around them by thinking carefully.
This is also a classic - since my first reading a couple of years ago, I have seen it referenced by many other books and scientific papers.
This was a great book. It had very accessible language, but it was very long. I read this over the course of about three months. I found it pretty easy to pick up again after putting it down for a while. I do wish there was a summarized take-away somewhere.
My primary somewhat-reading-between-the-lines take away: humans are not rational agents and we should consider that fact when evaluate hard human topics like accountability, freedom, fairness, justice, and equality.
Managed to meet my high expectations. Will recommend to others.
Should be taught in every school, at every capable grade, everywhere.
I was fortunate to be given this book, as I've unknowningly been really interested in many of the ideas and principles that turn out to have been indebted to Kahneman's work. This is a long read, but I found it consistently interesting, though at times I felt like there were some missed opportunities to more clearly outline and draw out principles from each chapter. I've bookmarked a number of passages and intend to reread some again to better internalize some of the lessons. Kahneman's skepticism and caution about human rationality is healthy and much needed, especially in the educator sector in which I work.
I was fortunate to be given this book, as I've unknowningly been really interested in many of the ideas and principles that turn out to have been indebted to Kahneman's work. This is a long read, but I found it consistently interesting, though at times I felt like there were some missed opportunities to more clearly outline and draw out principles from each chapter. I've bookmarked a number of passages and intend to reread some again to better internalize some of the lessons. Kahneman's skepticism and caution about human rationality is healthy and much needed, especially in the educator sector in which I work.
Thorough, readable overview of cognitive biases and prospect theory. Consistent short chapters covering one idea, often a review of psychology experiments that demonstrate the bias or result. Memorable shorthands for the different ways of thinking: the title mostly refers to our mind's intensity-driven jump-to-conclusion machine and our lazy calculating rational machine, neither free of bias.
Thorough, readable overview of cognitive biases and prospect theory. Consistent short chapters covering one idea, often a review of psychology experiments that demonstrate the bias or result. Memorable shorthands for the different ways of thinking: the title mostly refers to our mind's intensity-driven jump-to-conclusion machine and our lazy calculating rational machine, neither free of bias.
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 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.
I bought that book almost by chance - saw it in the bookshop, got a rise of an eyebrow at the mention "Nobel price", looked at the cover, shrugged, probably told myself "this guy is probably not too much of a quack, he probably has interesting things to say".
It IS a very interesting book, but it's pretty dense. I guess a (pretty long) subtitle could be "You suck at probabilities and at making rational decisions and here's why". The book summarizes around 30 years of research in psychology and economics, including what got Kahneman his Nobel price (in economics). It describes two ways of thinking, what they call System 1 and System 2 - System 1 is fast and intuitive (and allows you to not get eaten in the jungle, essentially), System 2 is more thoughtful and logical. And even when you think you're being entirely rational and logical, …
I bought that book almost by chance - saw it in the bookshop, got a rise of an eyebrow at the mention "Nobel price", looked at the cover, shrugged, probably told myself "this guy is probably not too much of a quack, he probably has interesting things to say".
It IS a very interesting book, but it's pretty dense. I guess a (pretty long) subtitle could be "You suck at probabilities and at making rational decisions and here's why". The book summarizes around 30 years of research in psychology and economics, including what got Kahneman his Nobel price (in economics). It describes two ways of thinking, what they call System 1 and System 2 - System 1 is fast and intuitive (and allows you to not get eaten in the jungle, essentially), System 2 is more thoughtful and logical. And even when you think you're being entirely rational and logical, chances are, you're not (and you're not probably not aware that you're not). Kahneman gives a lot of examples, and explains how a number of factors can effect rationality. Many of these may be familiar to those who read [b:You Are Not So Smart|11709037|You Are Not So Smart Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself|David McRaney|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391879112s/11709037.jpg|16656588], by David McRaney; while McRaney's style is more conversational and anecdote-based (pop science-y, maybe, in the good sense of the word), Kahneman is probably a bit above that - which may make it a bit harder to read (but again, very interesting).
I found myself being amazed, amused and bewildered by a lot of experimental results he presents, and fascinated by the explanations. Definitely recommended.
