book | Thinking

Fast and Slow
August 13, 2018


image | below
Portrait of economist and writer Daniel Kahneman PhD.


book title: Thinking
deck: Fast and Slow
author: by Daniel Kahneman PhD
year: 2011

this book on Good Reads | visit


— book description —

Exploring what influences our thinking.

The best selling book Thinking: Fast and Slow is written by Daniel Kahneman PhD — a well known researcher in the fields of behavioral economics + psychology and winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

The book takes readers on a journey of exploration: what influences human thinking and our choices? Kahneman says that people have too much confidence in their ability to have good judgment. So we need to understand what hidden human behaviors affect our decision-making.

Kahneman’s theory of two types of human thinking are called:

system 1 — fast thinking
system 2 — slow thinking

He explains the psychology behind things people imagine that we understand, but we really don’t — like the concept of intuition.

The book’s careful research into the science of how people think helps explain how we make choices in life. Thinking: Fast and Slow gives deep insight into: the psychology of our reactions, judgment, recognition, decisions, conclusions.

The book is a summary of Kahneman’s landmark research — that he did over decades — in collaboration with his colleague Amos Tversky PhD. The book also covers the 3 phases of Kahneman’s long career:

— his research on cognitive bias
— his research on prospect theory
— his research on happiness



about | 2 systems of human thinking
Theory by Daniel Kahneman PhD from his book.

In his book, Daniel Kahneman PhD explores his theory of 2 different ways people think. He calls this system 1 + system 2. He covers a number of experiments in his book that claim to show the differences between these 2 systems, but the experiments get different results — even w. the same inputs.

The concepts are: attention, laziness, association, jumping to conclusions, choices, and WYSIATI — what you see is all there is. The system 1 vs. system 2 debate explores how people make decisions, with big impact for fields like law and advertising.



— system of human thinking: no 1 —

description: frequent — fast, automatic, emotional, stereotypes, unconscious
examples: of things system 1 can do

  • see that an object is at a greater distance than another
  • localize the source of a specific sound
  • show upset feeling when seeing a graphic image
  • read the words on a billboard
  • drive your automobile on an empty road
  • imagine a good movie in the game of chess
  • understand simple sentences
  • understand what a job description is looking for in a person
  • solve the math question — 2+2 = ?

— system of human thinking: no. 2 —

description: infrequent — slow, effort, logical, calculates, conscious
examples: of things system 2 can do

  • brace your body before the start of a sprint
  • put your attention on the clowns at the circusput
  • your attention towards someone at a
  • loud partylook out for the lady with grey hair
  • dig into your memory to recognize a sound
  • walk fast for a long time
  • understand how to behave in a social setting
  • count the number of A’s in a book
  • give someone your telephone number
  • park your automobile in a tight parking space
  • assess the price/quality ratio of a variety of washing machines
  • evaluate if a complex reason is correct
  • solve the math question —  17 x 24 = ?


on the web | pages

Princeton Univ. | Daniel Kahneman PhD

Nobel Prize | Daniel Kahneman PhD • profile
Nobel Prize | Daniel Kahneman PhD • biography

Wikipedia | Daniel Kahneman PhD
Wikipedia | Amos Tverysky PhD
Wikipedia | behavioral economics
Wikipedia | book • Thinking: Fast and Slow