Mere Mortals Book Reviews

Mere Mortals Book Reviews


Thinking, Fast And Slow (Daniel Kahneman) - Book Review

February 13, 2021

How well do you really know your own mind?

'Thinking, Fast And Slow' is a hugely influential book published by the Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. In it he summarises 40 years of psychological research that helped to create the field of behavioural economics. The book is littered with gems of insight into the human brain and why humans behave the way we do. This includes heuristics such as loss aversion/anchoring/priming as well as larger concepts such as System 1 vs System 2, Econs vs Humans and the Experiencing Self vs Remembering Self.

I summarised the book as follows. "This was probably one of the most referenced books I had come across in my life and was finally glad to read it. This would have been mind blowing to me if I had not already heard all the concepts being talked about by people who had already read it! I particularly enjoyed the little tests at the start of the chapters which really highlight how easily your mind can be led astray. My only fault with it was that some parts did become a little dry and I found myself getting distracted until I came into the next chapter. All in all a fantastic book if you want to learn more about psychology and the way the human brain works!"
I hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Kyrin out!

Timeline:
(0:00) - Book overview
(1:40) - Prospect vs Utility theory
(5:58) - System 1 vs 2, Econs vs Humans & Experiencing vs Remembering Self
(9:21) - Personal observations
(13:20) - Summary
(15:06) - Pragmatic takeaway: be wary of probabilities

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