Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow

[KeithE]

Daniel Kahneman has spent his professional career in studying decision making. He is a Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and Princeton’s School of Publlc and International Affairs. He has won a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. His Book was the Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012.

I’m only 9 chapters into the 38 chapter book but it already has already explained to me the fixity of so many people’s views although few come to those opinions from much study at all.

Fast Thinking is reflexive thinking based on learned responses and priming. They are usually formed by what we are exposed to, people we trust, peer pressure, and “mutuality". It is “cognitively easy" to draw on and we instantly think of and proclaim those responses. He calls this sort of thinking System 1 and it dominates most people’s thinking and opinions. This means that our environments (authority figures, parents, peers, teachers, pastors, local culture) play a dominant role in most of our thinking. As an example. I’m against guns because I grew up in a California church environment where that was sinful.

Slow Thinking is more analytical and takes more time and effort to coalesce and form into words. It can take hours to weeks of study to formulate conclusions (much more than opinions) and can often be oppose by System 1 opinions. Its conclusions are usually more correct but come later. He calls this System 2 thinking.

His work is backed up with many hundreds of experiments which he describes in the book in a very engaging manner.

Both Systems are necessary; System 1 when speed is needed (emergencies) but System 2 when accuracy is needed. He believes much more System 2 thinking is needed in the public discourse because of the complexity of the issues.

I believe that much of what he hear here on BL is instant System 1 thinking. Personally I try to do more System 2 thinking before making one of my long posts but I do short replies as well.

This book has made me appreciate the sort of quick responses I get from some of you and not take it too seriously (it’s your environment). I hope it makes you appreciate my more System 2 thinking I sometimes employ here at BL.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this book after I read it more (on my trip). It is long (499 pages), dense and interesting, so I doubt I’ll finish it on the 2/1/2 week trip. I’m about to start the more statistically “heuristic” part of the book. I’ll be eager to see if any of you have read it and what your thoughts are about it. Quick replies will be read up to 10:45am tomorrow.

[William Thornton]

Ummmm...so most of the folks here are knee jerk tankers while thou art highly analytical?

Sort of already knew where you were going with this without much thinking.

Stay away from the ganja dens and other sketchy places in amsterdam and have a nice trip.

[Dave Roberts]

Kahneman, whom I have not read, sounds like an important read. I may see if I can get it from the library. I understand his thesis, and the fact that most of us do not do hard work thinking is something to which I was first exposed in college. It's not usually a popular mode because it doesn't lend itself to our prejudices and the styles we may like. Most of us who write a lot do not have time t process the ramifications of what we may write. It's always interesting to go back a read old sermons of my own, especially from the 1970's and 1980's. I certainly said a lot that I knew nothing about and had not thought about extensively. In some things, I still do.

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: So Keith, what is the attraction for y'll to visit the red light district on your trip? Did you ever visit NY's time square area before it got cleaned up ?

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]