Since even books from Nobel prize laureates need an introduction, in brief: this book worth reading. Humans are known to be illogical and trust instincts up to the point when finding a penny left in a copy machine results in statistically significant improve in the results of life satisfaction questionnaire.
Simple event, such a finding a dime can improve how people feel about their lives — think about more complex and pleasant or not so events, which can occur during one’s life. And, as said in the conclusion, this might be the best takeaway from a book: « recognize the signs that you are in a cognitive minefield, slow down, and ask for reinforcement from your conscious self».
The main concept, book introduces reader to is the concept of two Systems: the one responsible for instinct fast reactions. This System lets us react fast. And the second one, which allows us to answer complex questions, like what will be 131 * 9, what is the third to the biggest cities in the UK or should someone invest into iranian oil companies.
All the assumptions are noted with the references for actual studies, so the results can be reviewed and verified by a curious reader — and what distinguishes this book from all the life hack summaries — it helps you understand why things work the way they are.
Two systems are not the only aspects, which are covered: risk aversion, decision making, biases in judgements, experienced well-being, impossibility to learn regression through experience. All that things, studied by Dr. Kahneman and his colleagues are described in the manner, which helps to overcome biases and all the heuristics, which might obscure decision-making process. So reading this book and doing simple exercises can make reader a more reasonable and rational person.
The book is based on some previous work of the author, which was published in 1974. As a matter of fact, book — more thoughtful version of article, supplied with extra facts and explanations. «Judgements under uncertainty: heuristics and biases» by Amos Tversky; Daniel Kahneman, which has more than 38 thousands quotation, as a matter of fact — the best summary of the book and can be used to determine, if you will like the book, so it might be a good idea, to start reading the book with this article.
Thinking, fast and slow mind map
As usual, mind map is available at GitHub.
