Elevator Pitch Summary: Written by a Noble Prize winner, this book provides an excellent, easy to understand overview on psychology. Daniel Kahneman is a renown researcher on decision making who has the ability to break down complex theories and ideas into concepts for people without a background in psychology (like me).
Read this if you're in the mood for: Thinking. And, spending time with a substantive book. At 512 pages, the book is packed with research summaries, as well as exercises for the readers that are astoundingly accurate in terms of predicting and understanding the thought process.
The book is broken out into short chapters with summary statements written in simple, generic terms that effectively convey concepts to the reader. This makes the conveyance of so much knowledge manageable.
System 1 and System 2
Kahnman uses generic descriptors System 1 and System 2 to describe judgment and decision making. System 1 does the "fast" thinking - perusing, collecting information rapidly and making quick assumptions.
For example, when entering a crowded room, System 1 scans the room and makes the assessment of what to do next. Due to its fast thinking, System 1 tends to make inaccurate and stereotypical assumptions as it looks for shortcuts to process information.
System 2 does the "slow" thinking and is the logical partner that corrects inaccuracies from System 1. Studies have shown that furrowing eyebrows represents System 2 at work.
Both these systems exist within everyone, so the key is the balance of these two systems. "...many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions," Kahnman writes. "They apparently find cognitive effort at least mildly unpleasant and avoid it as much as possible."
This statement resonates with me; yet so does the following: "Too much concern about how well one is doing in a task sometimes disrupts performance by loading short-term memory with pointless anxious thoughts."
Read this if you're in the mood for: Thinking. And, spending time with a substantive book. At 512 pages, the book is packed with research summaries, as well as exercises for the readers that are astoundingly accurate in terms of predicting and understanding the thought process.
The book is broken out into short chapters with summary statements written in simple, generic terms that effectively convey concepts to the reader. This makes the conveyance of so much knowledge manageable.
System 1 and System 2
Kahnman uses generic descriptors System 1 and System 2 to describe judgment and decision making. System 1 does the "fast" thinking - perusing, collecting information rapidly and making quick assumptions.
For example, when entering a crowded room, System 1 scans the room and makes the assessment of what to do next. Due to its fast thinking, System 1 tends to make inaccurate and stereotypical assumptions as it looks for shortcuts to process information.
System 2 does the "slow" thinking and is the logical partner that corrects inaccuracies from System 1. Studies have shown that furrowing eyebrows represents System 2 at work.
Both these systems exist within everyone, so the key is the balance of these two systems. "...many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions," Kahnman writes. "They apparently find cognitive effort at least mildly unpleasant and avoid it as much as possible."
This statement resonates with me; yet so does the following: "Too much concern about how well one is doing in a task sometimes disrupts performance by loading short-term memory with pointless anxious thoughts."
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