Thinking, Fast and Slow

Never has a book become more deeply ingrained in my daily life for such a short time. Every day, since the moment I started reading Thinking, Fast and Slow, I have either referenced it in a conversation or have noticed a situation, explained in the book.

Thinking, Fast and Slow contains all the psychological wisdom the Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman has gathered through the years. He’s almost 80 years old, this makes for a lot of wisdom.

The goal of the book is to give us names to the most common errors of judgement we make. In addition to the names there are a ton of amusing stories and insights into how our mind works. While most of the content isn’t unique, the value of the book is in its completeness. It covers all aspects of the way humans make decisions, both right and wrong.

If you answer with “yes” to at least two and a half of the questions below, move Thinking, Fast and Slow to the top of your reading list:

• Have you wondered why very smart people have a hard time navigating in the outside world?
• Have you ever submitted a sub-par essay, because the professor knew you were smart?
• Have you ever negotiated over something?
• Have you ever given money to a charity?
• Have you ever evaluated (in your mind) whether a person is attractive or not?
• Have you wondered why we trust some politicians even if we don’t know their work well enough?
• Have you wondered why people love conspiracy theories?
• Have you ever had to make an important work decision?
• Have you ever had to make an important life decision?
• Have you ever had to make a decision about anything?

Thinking, Fast and Slow is the most complete and in-depth popular work on how and why we make decisions, that I’ve read. It was worth every minute I spent with it.