Thinking, Fast and Slow — A Synopsis via a mindmap
I recently finished the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. It is a fascinating book that describes the working of the human mind by introducing the reader to two fictitious characters. The characters are called System 1 and System 2.
These characters are introduced to explain the two modes of thinking by the human brain. One mode where the thinking happens automatically and quickly, for example, the emotion and thinking that is evoked by looking at a photo of an angry woman or a smiling baby. The second mode is evoked when dealing with effortful mental activities such as complex computations for example 17 x 24.
Daniel Kahneman defines the two systems as follows
System 1
Operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.
System 2
Allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.
The rest of the book is written in a way that describes the psychodrama with the two characters. The book explains the working of the two systems with real-world examples. My take on the book is that it can be a challenge to grasp it completely.
I thought it would be useful to create a mindmap of the working of System 1 and 2 to help me visualize the two modes of thinking. I found this exercise helpful in understanding the two thinking modes. I hope that other readers of the book will find it useful. I will very much appreciate it if you can let me know what you think and provide some feedback if you have read the book.
The full interactive mindmap can be viewed at the following miro board. A static image of the mindmap is shown below
References
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow Penguin Books Ltd.
