“Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman

I wanted to write about a marvellous book by Daniel Kahneman with quite an exciting title of “Thinking Fast and Slow“. Even though we are not even whole year through (It’s middle of the May), I consider this book to be a very serious contender to become the book of the year. I am already planning to re-read it in the end of this year (during the Winter Holidays), and there are actually just a couple of the books in my reading history that I have instantly decided to come back and re-read them again – one example would be “Finite and Infinite Games” by James Carse.

The book has a number of topics and studies, and I will highlight the ones that I consider the most important and valuable ones –
– 2 Systems is a theme that there are 2 models of thinking – System 1 which acts fast and emotionally, and System 2 which is slow, thoughtful and logic-based. The practical impact of each of the systems usage is extremely important and learning how to activate/force our System 2 is a thing that will take a lifetime to learn, for me, at least.
– Framing Effect is a topic about the decision influence of the people who when presented a positive spin will see mostly the advantages and focus on the negatives when the risks are presented.
– Anchoring (cognitive bias) is the topic about the decision making process which is influenced by a reference point (aka Anchor) which will serve as a comparing point. This is used a lot of times in negotiation.
– Inside & Outside View are 2 view systems which are extremely important for the decision making – forgetting about the external views can lead into wrong considerations by basing the predictions on the “safe” and “potent” internal considerations.
– …
There are too many delightful topics to count !

No book is perfect and certainly there are already known failings in this book, which Daniel Kahneman admitted himself – those were based on the trust of studies and tests made by other scientists, but the value and some of the lessons on the System 1 and System 2 are absolutely brilliant.

I can not recommend this book enough. Especially those who are working with Data and making decisions consciously and willing to improve their quality and certainty of their decisions, while cleansing up the bias should consider this book.

But please take a slow thinking approach and do your research before trusting the respective topics. :)