Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow

2011 • 499 pages

Ratings364

Average rating4.1

15

This was a mammoth read, taking about 4 months (put it down for 3 bc it hurt my brain). I'm really glad I chewed through.
The basic premise of the book is that we (human beings) believe we are entirely rational, and make choices reflecting our rationality - but there is an extremely substantial amount of evidence that confirms how wrong this is. This doesn't mean that people are irrational, but we are not “rational” by the definition used, and frequently make decisions that are in contradiction to what is ‘rational' simply because of the way information is presented, and how we are feeling at the time.

A fun example is that when assessing the decisions made by judges granting bail applications, there was a significant correlation between how close the Judge was to lunch-time and how many bail applications were granted. The hungrier they were, the less likely they were to grant a person bail. This goes against a whole lot of beliefs we hold about ourselves, and so this book fully popped the lid for me lol

Pretty dense read though, google some summaries and then hone in on specific chapters if you don't want to read the whole thing! Yahoo

April 28, 2020