Thinking, Fast and Slow
Kahneman (Daniel)
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Amazon Product Description

  1. Thinking Fast and Slow offers a whole new look at the way our minds work, and how we make decisions.
    • Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face?
    • Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch?
    • Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent?
  2. The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. This book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking. It will enable to you make better decisions at work, at home, and in everything you do.

Amazon Customer Review
  1. This book summarises the latest psychological research on human judgement, in particular how we think irrationally, jump to conclusions and fall prey to failures of intuition.
  2. To give you a feel, here is an example from chapter 17. Have a look at this statement and see if you can guess why it might be true:
      "Highly intelligent women tend to marry men who are less intelligent than they are"
    Did you find a nice explanation? The book will show you why no explanation is necessary. It is a statistical necessity. It will also explain why it is very difficult to avoid believing spurious explanations and how pervasive and dangerous they can be.
  3. That is just one tiny example. The book is absolutely packed with fascinating and thought-provoking discussion of a wide range of similar topics. It is almost a must-read for anyone interested in human judgement or broader questions about how the mind works.
  4. There were a few things that niggled with me. I will mention these but please don't be put off. Even with the niggles it is an intelligent and valuable book.
    • The writing is clear and easy to understand. However it is a bit repetitive. After I got a feel for where the repetition was coming I often found myself skipping or skimming half a paragraph. Comparing this with Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, a book covering similar ground, Ariely's book gets its points across in a much punchier way and presents a similar amount of material in (I guess) half as many words.
    • The author gives other researchers credit where it is due but when talking about his own work I feel he overdoes his self-publicity. I have read plenty of books by acclaimed scientists and they don't boast about how good their work is as much as Kahneman does. Some people may not mind this, or may not even notice it. Maybe I am being too sensitive but I did find it irritating so I think it is fair to mention it.
    • Finally, I had a feeling that the book was presenting itself as more original than it really is. I happen to read the New Scientist every week and a very large part of the material in the book has appeared in the magazine over the last few years.
    • One final, very small, niggle. The book often uses names for psychological findings - the endowment effect, the halo effect, loss aversion, and many others. Usually these are widely accepted terms. However, Kahneman insists on coining a few of his own that are not accepted terms. The most notable, where he names different types of thinking "System1" and "System 2", is central to the book and, although he gives a reasonable justification for it, I don't believe it is, or ever will be widely used. This is a practice widely used by quack writers, which is a pity as there is not a trace of quackery in this extremely intelligent book.
  5. Because of the niggles, I started by giving the book 4 stars, but on reflection, it is so full of wise discussion and useful advice, I realized I was being churlish and gave it the extra star.
  6. If you are interested in the subject I would strongly recommend reading both this and Predictably Irrational. Neither the style nor the material is the same. If you only want to read one book, or are new to the subject, you might prefer Predictably Irrational as it is more fun to read, and its ideas will grab you more quickly. I read Predictably Irrational in a couple of sittings but Thinking, Fast and Slow took me 3 weeks as it is 400 pages of small print and I usually felt tired after reading 1-2 chapters. On the other hand, Thinking, Fast and Slow will thoroughly reward the greater investment of effort. Another excellent book which predates this by 14 years is "Claxton (Guy) - Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less". This has a different take on the subject and, unfortunately, does not seem to be acknowledged anywhere.

Contents
    Introduction – 3
    Part I: Two Systems
  1. The Characters of the Story – 19
  2. Attention and Effort – 31
  3. The Lazy Controller – 39
  4. The Associative Machine – 50
  5. Cogitive Ease – 59
  6. Norms, Surprises, and Causes – 71
  7. A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions – 79
  8. How Judgements Happen – 89
  9. Answering an Easier Question – 97
    Part II: Heuristics and Biases
  10. The Law of Small Numbers – 109
  11. Anchors – 119
  12. The Science of Availability – 129
  13. Availability, Emotion, and Risk – 137
  14. Tom W’s Speciality – 146
  15. Linda: Less Is More – 156
  16. Causes Trump Statistics – 166
  17. Regression to the Mean – 175
  18. Taming Intuitive Predictions – 185
    Part III: Overconfidence
  19. The Illusion of Understanding – 199
  20. The Illusion of Validity – 209
  21. Intuition vs. Formulas – 222
  22. Expert Intuition: When Can We Trust It? – 234
  23. The Outside View – 245
  24. The Engine of Capitalism – 255
    Part IV: Choices
  25. Bernoulli’s Errors
  26. Prospect Theory – 278
  27. The Endowment Effect – 289
  28. Bad Events – 300
  29. The Fourfold Pattern – 310
  30. Rare Events – 322
  31. Risk Policies – 334
  32. Keeping Score – 342
  33. Reversals – 353
  34. Frames and Reality – 363
    Part V: Two Selves
  35. Two Selves – 377
  36. Life as a Story – 386
  37. Experienced Well-Being – 391
  38. Thinking About Life – 398
    Conclusions – 408
    Appendix A: Judgement Under Uncertainty
    Appendix B: Choices, Values and Frames
    Notes – 449
    Acknowledgements – 483
    Index – 485
Book Comment

Penguin (10 May 2012). Present from Pete.


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Introduction"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Part I - Two Systems"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Part I


Contents
  1. The Characters of the Story – 19
  2. Attention and Effort – 31
  3. The Lazy Controller – 39
  4. The Associative Machine – 50
  5. Cogitive Ease – 59
  6. Norms, Surprises, and Causes – 71
  7. A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions – 79
  8. How Judgements Happen – 89
  9. Answering an Easier Question – 97


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Part II - Heuristics and Biases"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Part II


Contents
  1. The Law of Small Numbers – 109
  2. Anchors – 119
  3. The Science of Availability – 129
  4. Availability, Emotion, and Risk – 137
  5. Tom W’s Speciality – 146
  6. Linda: Less Is More – 156
  7. Causes Trump Statistics – 166
  8. Regression to the Mean – 175
  9. Taming Intuitive Predictions – 185


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Part III - Overconfidence"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Part III


Contents
  1. The Illusion of Understanding – 199
  2. The Illusion of Validity – 209
  3. Intuition vs. Formulas – 222
  4. Expert Intuition: When Can We Trust It? – 234
  5. The Outside View – 245
  6. The Engine of Capitalism – 255


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Part IV - Choices"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Part IV


Contents
  1. Bernoulli’s Errors
  2. Prospect Theory – 278
  3. The Endowment Effect – 289
  4. Bad Events – 300
  5. The Fourfold Pattern – 310
  6. Rare Events – 322
  7. Risk Policies – 334
  8. Keeping Score – 342
  9. Reversals – 353
  10. Frames and Reality – 363


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Part V - Two Selves"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Part V


Contents
  1. Two Selves – 377
  2. Life as a Story – 386
  3. Experienced Well-Being – 391
  4. Thinking About Life – 398


"Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow: Conclusion & Appendices"

Source: Kahneman (Daniel) - Thinking, Fast and Slow


Contents
  1. Conclusions – 408
  2. Appendix A: Judgement Under Uncertainty – 419
  3. Appendix B: Choices, Values and Frames – 433


Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025
  2. Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)


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