Sameer Kushwaha's Reviews > Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a complex story of how human's fundamental thought processes shape our world in a manner that is surprising and contradictory to the one that may be expected of "rational" beings. Kahneman mashes the worlds of psychology, neuroscience, and economics to explain many of the flaws that people make in daily decisions - both mundane and deeply important ones.

Much of the strength of the book lies in its delineation and labelling of phenomena that are easy to understand and experienced regularly, but difficult to pinpoint as important and sometimes problematic behaviours. These phenomena include "narrow framing", "anchoring", "focusing illusions" and a litany of others that I hope to carry forward (at least subconsciously). At times, the book gives the familiar Gladwell-like feeling of gaining deep insight into the state of the world, followed by the sense that little can actually be done to meaningfully utilize the new knowledge. However, Kahneman does a stellar job of teaching how his findings are relevant to a variety of disciplines, and how they can be utilized to do things better. His snippets at the end of each chapter translating the concepts into real world vignettes seemed quirky initially, but eventually felt crucial to solidifying the understanding of how to apply the lessons in our day-to-day lives.

This book took quite a while to plow through. It's a meticulous (system 2 heavy) read that has a lot of terminology and concepts that require some time to mull over and it begs the reader to question the manner that decisions are made in their own world. It is a fascinating and thought provoking story of the brain that is deeply researched and it is abundantly clear that Kahneman has put a lot of TLC into composing a well structured, compelling, and accessible account of a significant portion of his life's work. Speeding through Thinking, Fast and Slow would do it and Kahneman a disservice. This is a particularly important read for people interested in psychology and economics, but I have a hard time thinking of anyone who would not be able to glean something from this powerful book.