Thinking, Fast and Slow

When I was advised a book of Daniel Kahneman "Thinking, Fast and Slow", part of me arose: "How dare you point me out how should I think, fast, slow! My thinking area is only mine and nobody can point me out how I should do it!". As result the book was left unread.

Later however, when I have seen the video of  Tim Urban on Ted Talk, which I knew later was inspired also by this book, I finally decided to read this book.

It looks like Kahneman made his book hard to read it for some purpose. Looks like he really wanted to make his book possible unknown and hard to be understood. Instead of prominent characters of Tim Urban with characters like Monkey, Monster and Rational Type in his book Kahnemann uses terms "System 1" and "System 2". Those terms are not easy to remember.

There is a idea that the best texts are written the by most awkward language.

The Kahneman himself says that he uses this way to make people pay more attention to details because according his research when information is harder to be understood this activates the brain of the reader and makes people more attentive and critical. Probably it is the case, but also it opens opportunities for other authors use Kahneman's book to create more viral derivatives.

This book does not teach you how to think. It does not make speed of your thinking faster or slower. This book brings you other ideas about the way how people are using their brain. Nowadays his work is being used by marketologists, traiders, economists and all the people who are dealing with behaviour of higher primates e.g. humans.

In the 1970s, two assumptions were generally accepted. First, that people are basically rational and sane. Secondly, that most deviations from rationality are explained by emotions. But Kahneman's research has shown that people's constant thinking errors are due more to the very mechanism of thinking than to the influence of emotions. Today, researchers agree with the thesis that our minds are prone to systematic errors. Kahneman's main idea is to demonstrate the workings of the mind, taking into account the latest discoveries in cognitive and social psychology.

Should you read this book? Decide for yourself. But if we decide to read it be ready that your world will never be the same!