Book Review: Thinking, Fast and Slow, By Daniel Kahneman
Book Review
Daniel Kahneman, alongwith his late partner, Amos Taversky is considered amongst the pioneers of the field of Behavioral Economics. Kahneman and Taversky discovered some of the earliest known cognitive biases known to us, with most of them discovered by analyzing and discussing their own thoughts and behaviors in their offices. They conducted some of the most interesting experiments to uncover some of these biases.
In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Dr. Kahneman takes the readers through the journey of exploring various subconscious cognitive shortcuts and their impact on our behaviour and decision-making abilities. As he states in the book, the mental shortcuts and hard-wired responses (heuristics and cognitive biases) were built in evolutionary changes that helped our ancestors survive and thrive during the early years in the Savannah and a few hundreds of thousands of years thereafter. It were these shortcuts that helped us think quickly and react on suspicion — like spotting a predator in the bushes.
There are situations, though not entirely similar, where today’s humans — you, me and everybody else, still employ and benefit from such applications. However, the world has changed drastically in the past 5000 years and the lessons that were hard-wired into our minds, no longer are helpful.
Dr. Kahneman takes the reader into the depths of various biases and the drawbacks of thinking fast. And contrasts it by emphasizing the need to think slowly at times when shortcuts don’t provide the intented outcome.
Thinking, Fast and Slow, is a brilliant book by a brilliant scientist who has spent decades trying to uncover and understand the extent and limitations of human cognitive psychology. It is available from the following dealers and is worth every cent spent.
Originally published on January 27th, 2013
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