Juan Carlos's Reviews > Thinking, Fast and Slow

It's one of those books that you will either love or hate. There are moments of sheer amazement, but then there are moment when you want the book to end. If you do not keep up with the findings in the Social Sciences, then I would highly recommend it because it sums up all the current research being done in Behavioral Economics and so forth. If you do keep up with the research that is taking place in the Social Sciences, then I recommend you skim through it because a lot of the information will be review.

**Update - 1 March 2015**
After having read this work by Dr. Kahneman for a second type, my opinion about it has changed, but I will keep the previous review. I will be updating my rating from four to five stars. This book really is a great work that goes into the workings of the mind and with the findings has large implications for our understanding of the way by which we interpret the world. It is difficult to have a practical approach to the world with the findings of this work, but it at least makes us aware of how the mind is operating and interpreting the world. The evolutionary history of modern humans is extensive and the mind that came to be with that evolution retains a lot of the tools that were/are useful, but can lead to errors. Becoming aware of those errors, can help us better frame the world, so as to err less often. Regardless, the way by which the mind interprets the world is efficient for many situations, but requires a more critical observation in some situations. Furthermore, the work is important because it challenges the assumption of modern economics and by doing so, can help further our understanding of economic models based on humans rather than econs that economist assume most people are. The author describes humans as a species that commits errors systematically and econs are what economist assume are rational agents in economic analyses. All in all, we will begin to better understand our actions as we further our understanding of how we interpret the world and become conscious that we make errors systematically. This is not painting a dismal picture of humans, but rather being honest that we do commit errors and that we can become aware of those errors by understanding the context of a given situation. Also, we are pretty good at making intuitive judgements, which is why we are so efficient, but sometimes this is what makes us err.