Thinking Fast & Slow - Summary

A summary of: Thinking, Fast and Slow.
It is a 2011 book by psychologist Daniel Kahneman.The books main thesis is that of a dichotomy between two modes of thought: "System 1" is fast, instinctive and emotional; "System 2" is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.
The book delineates rational and non-rational motivations or triggers associated with each type of thinking process, and how they complement each other, starting with Kahnemans own research on loss aversion.
From framing choices to peoples tendency to replace a difficult question with one which is easy to answer, the book summarizes several decades of research to suggest that people have too much confidence in human judgement.
Kahneman performed his own research, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky, which enriched his experience to write the book.
It covers different phases of his career: his early work concerning cognitive biases, his work on prospect theory and happiness, and with the Israel Defense Forces.The integrity of many of the priming studies cited in the book have been called into question in the midst of the psychological replication crisis, although the results of Kahnemans own studies have been replicated.[citation needed]The book was a New York Times bestseller and was the 2012 winner of the National Academies Communication Award for best creative work that helps the public understanding of topics in behavioral science, engineering and medicine.In the books first section, Kahneman describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts:System 1: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious.
Examples (in order of complexity) of things system 1 can do:determine that an object is at a greater distance than anotherlocalize the source of a specific soundcomplete the phrase "war and ..."display disgust when seeing a gruesome imagesolve 2+2=?read text on a billboarddrive a car on an empty roadthink of a good chess move (if youre a chess master)understand simple sentencesassociate the description quiet and structured person with an eye for details with a specific jobSystem 2: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious.
Examples of things system 2 can do:prepare yourself for the start of a sprintdirect your attention towards the clowns at the circusdirect your attention towards someone at a loud partylook for the woman with the grey hairtry to recognize a soundsustain a faster-than-normal walking ratedetermine the appropriateness of a particular behavior in a social settingcount the number of As in a certain textgive someone your telephone numberpark into a tight parking spacedetermine the price/quality ratio of two washing machinesdetermine the validity of a complex logical reasoningsolve 17 × 24Content:INTRODUCTIONPART 1: TWO SYSTEMS1: THE CHARACTERS OF THE STORY2: ATTENTION AND EFFORT3: THE LAZY CONTROLLER4: THE ASSOCIATIVE MACHINE5: COGNITIVE EASE6: NORMS, SURPRISES, AND CAUSES7: A MACHINE FOR JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS9: ANSWERING AN EASIER QUESTIONPART 2: HEURISTICS AND BIASES10: THE LAW OF SMALL NUMBERS11: ANCHORING EFFECTS12: THE SCIENCE OF AVAILABILITY13: AVAILABILITY, EMOTION, AND RISK14: TOM W’S SPECIALTY15: LINDA: LESS IS MORE17: REGRESSION TO THE MEAN18: TAMING INTUITIVE PREDICTIONSPART 3: OVERCONFIDENCE19: THE ILLUSION OF UNDERSTANDINGCHAPTER 20: THE ILLUSION OF VALIDITY21: INTUITIONS VS.
FORMULAS22: EXPERT INTUITION: WHEN CAN WE TRUST IT?23: THE OUTSIDE VIEW24: THE ENGINE OF CAPITALISMPART 4: CHOICES25: BERNOULLI’S ERROR26: PROSPECT THEORY27: THE ENDOWMENT EFFECT28: BAD EVENTS29: THE FOURFOLD PATTERN30: RARE EVENTS31: RISK POLICIES32: KEEPING SCORE33: REVERSALS34: FRAMES AND REALITYPART 5: TWO SELVES35: TWO SELVES37: EXPERIENCED WELL-BEING38: THINKING ABOUT LIFE