Jon Kamrud's Reviews > Thinking, Fast and Slow

Do you want to know how your mind works? How it process the information that you see and hear? I would strongly recommend that you pick up this book and give it a read through. Thinking, Fast and Slow takes you there by breaking down and using a vast variety of real life scenarios drawn from Daniel Kahneman’s life's work. The book is not however for the faint of heart. It’s not what I would call “light” reading. The book makes you think about how you have approached different situations or what you are currently thinking as you read. For this reason, I believe the book is meant for a more mature audience.
Thinking, Fast and Slow is a book that is designed instruct the reader on how the two different modes of thinking happen and the results when one or both modes of thinking are engaged. Creatively but not uniquely Kahneman turns the modes of thinking into characters simply called System 1 and System 2. Just like a good fiction book, the characters are introduced early and the complexity of their contribution continues to grow as you read. In short, System 1 is the mode of thinking that is fast and intuitive, similar to your gut reaction and requires little to no effort. System 2 is the slower more wise mode of thinking that needs to be used consciously to interpret and dissect the information it is receiving.
If you are like me you will find your mind being read by Kahneman as he uses a variety of different scenarios and test to demonstrate to the reader how your thinking process works. In a way it was satisfyingly annoying. One of the biggest benefits to the book was the fact the Kahneman describes much of his life’s work in psychology to illustrate how he and his fellow researchers were able to come to the conclusions found in the book. This is not made up and is not really an opinion much of what is learned is factually due to the meticulous research that was done in search of answers. Topics like bias and overconfidence were covered and I found these topics to be fascinating. I also found topics like interviewing applicable to my current role and work in my personal life. This book is the essence of information gathering. It explains to the reader how your mind interprets and uses the information that you gave every single day.
This book was definitely a winner and I would highly recommend it to others. Given that the book walks through and highlights different research studies and their findings justifies the factual aspect of the subject. Thinking is something that you both can control and can not control. Kahneman does an excellent job of providing the reader with the knowledge to understand the two systems and how to approach real life scenarios. My one complaint, which is very minor, is the font size the publisher choose to use when printing the book. The font size is small and even with my 20/20 vision my eyes were easily strained while reading. This may have also been caused by the dense content that was being covered within each chapter. This book makes you think and reflect on what you are learning. Other than that small issue, the book is very well laid out basic principles outlined early in the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. Kahneman did an excellent job making what is a very complex psychology topic easy (minus the font size) and fun to read. I felt that I came away from this experience with a better understanding of myself as a person and my personal thinking tendencies.