Jordyn Neff
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Book Report
General Overview
Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow" provides excellent insight into the functioning of the brain. He discusses two distinct systems that run our minds in this book.The first one, known as system one, is quick, automatic, and intuitive. The second, known as system two, is slow and analytical. He discusses cognitive biases and the processes that guide our decision-making in this book. In order to help the reader understand the material he is discussing, he includes real-life examples throughout the book. From reading this book, we can better understand how our thinking is flawed and it can therefore lead us to better decisions.
Favorite Part
My favorite chapter, chapter 8, outlines which system is used for what and focuses on how each system can make decisions. In this chapter, Kahneman indicates that because system 1 is an automatic process, it is quicker at making decisions. He says that system 1 “continuously monitors what is going on outside and inside the mind, and continuously generates assessments of various aspects of the situation without specific intention and with little to no effort” (Kahneman 2011). In this chapter, he describes how this is the “ essential idea of heuristics and biases approach” (Kahneman 2011). I've been learning about different heuristics and biases in this class for the last few weeks. Heuristics are shortcuts that speed up our decision-making, but they are not a perfect system. In this method, there still have a large number of errors. He also discusses how system two is utilized for more complicated questions in this chapter, and how it uses a more thorough thought process to respond to these types of questions. The use of examples and pictures in this chapter helped me to fully understand the information he was providing. My favorite part of this chapter was when he discussed how we judge others by their physical features, such as their jawline or facial structure. I found his explanation of how we determine whether it is safe to interact with a stranger based on our initial impressions of them to be quite interesting.
Related
In this class, we have covered biases and fallacies by viewing both posters. Prior to this class, I was not aware that biases and fallacies were a thing. In the first lecture, we learned about the different ways of thinking. This included fast thinking and slow thinking which are both discussed in this book. Both of these can impact our thinking in different ways but both many times lead to the wrong conclusions. Although they are comparable, biases and fallacies differ significantly in some important ways. Fallacies are more of a flaw, whereas biases are more predictable. Learning about fallacies and biases in this class and then in the book has helped me gain a better understanding of these ideas.
Creative
I decided to create a brief video to summarize the two systems I have learned about in this book. In addition, I have included a YouTube video that provides a comprehensive summary of the book.
https://youtu.be/uqXVAo7dVRU
Extension
This book made it clear to me that I need to be more mindful of the choices I make every day. After reading this book, I think there are methods we should use to improve our ability to decision-making. I believe there would be less inaccuracy in the world if everyone was aware of the various systems, fallacies, and biases that shape our decisions. Real-world difficulties like insufficient healthcare, financial issues, and even political challenges, could be resolved if we learned to be more mindful of the decisions we are making and the cognitive biases we have. We must realize that decisions should be thoroughly considered and evaluated rather than immediately made when dealing with more complicated topics. This book assisted me in realizing that, and I can now use this knowledge in my day-to-day activities and start being the change that the world needs.
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