Richard's Reviews > Thinking, Fast and Slow

I read this book on and off. At times I found it fascinating, but for large parts this book seemed more of an excersize in statistics than psychology. The author has great interest in both subjects, while for me only the latter triggered my interest in this book.

At 200 pages in I just started skimming through it and found most of it to be stating the obvious. Only those who need lengthy arguments accompanied by the unsurprising results of many experiments before they can see the reality of every day live might be moved to new insights by this book.

What takes the author well over 400 pages to say is this:

1. Our mind is lazy and untrustworthy, falsely coloring assumed observations from actual experience and direct knowledge.

2. Do not rely on the mind for happiness, but look into actual experience.

Of course, anyone with the slightest interest in psychology and spirituality has heard this before. There are many books who approach this clearer and direct, but of course a scientist would disregard these conclusions as unreliable without any data to back these up.

Perhaps the purpose of this book is to move even the most rigid of minds to the same conclusion. Or perhaps readers other than me find this sort of analysis much more entertaining than I do.