May 01 2024 at 10:53AM
The review: Thinking Fast and Slow
Thinking Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
This month, we want to pay our small tribute to Daniel Kahneman, who recently passed away, reviewing his most famous book, "Thinking Fast and Slow."
The book summarizes the outcome of the investigation carried out by D. Kahneman and A. Tversky over four decades. It provides a framework for understanding why we make systematic mistakes when judging reality.
Kahneman describes two types of thinking: System 1 works fast and automatically without conscious control; it constantly assesses the world. System 2 works slowly, paying attention to mental activities that require more effort. Both systems work when we are awake, and they are connected in the sense that system 1 provides inputs to system 2. When system 2 accepts these inputs, our intuitions become convictions.
According to Kahneman, when system 1 operates in certain circumstances, it makes systematic errors in perceiving reality, leading to wrong judgments.
With many contextual examples, the reader is invited to think in the way she is thinking and to recognize the biases and patterns that are almost unavoidable when making judgments.
This title is one of those scientific texts that go beyond the academic environment to become popular with the great public. The clarity of the prose and the thrilling topic of human psychology will hook you through every one of its 500 pages. Thanks, Mr. Kahneman, for this superb work!
Please enjoy it!
Thinking Fast and Slow; ISBN-13 978-0141033570; 499 pgs
Ons Feilbare Denken; ISBN-13978-9047009009; 528 pgs
Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024) was an Israeli American psychologist. Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv but spent his early years in France. He was there during the invasion of the Nazis and survived the war. Kahneman received a bachelor's degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and, in 1958, a PhD in Psychology from Berkeley University. He taught at several universities and was a professor emeritus at Princeton. Kahneman studied the biases we have in our judgment and the mechanisms that are involved in decision-making. In 2003, he received the Nobel Prize for his theory of behavioral economics, which studies the influence of psychological, emotional, cultural, or social factors in the process of decision-making of individuals or institutions.
