An Overview and Review of Thinking Fast and Slow
This book is decisively the most applicable self-help book I have ever read
Self-Help Books in the Modern Age
I tend to find that the content of self-help books goes in one ear and comes out the other. They might make me feel good and provide a sense of self-growth, but are really just acting as a sort of “insight porn.” I sit there reading and nod at the ideas before me but historically have failed to make much of them. After a bit of careful reflection, I usually can’t identify any significant changes in my life.
Why Thinking Fast and Slow Sticks Out
Admittedly, I only recently started taking notes on what I read, which undoubtedly has helped with internalization. Regardless, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman contains a thorough level of fresh perspectives that consistently hit the mark largely due to their intuitive relatability.
One who walks through Kahneman’s prompts and thought experiments on their own will almost always fall within the lines of his predictions. This isn’t magic — it’s because the results have been illustrated countless times by other humans. Personally, this walk-through process has ultimately allowed me to grasp and apply these concepts more effectively and frequently than any self-help book of the past.
Uniquely Engaging
Not only were this book’s concepts clearly communicated, but their delivery was also highly engaging. Kahneman embraces the technique of inviting readers to arrive at his thought-provoking conclusions on their own, raising the likelihood that they’ll stick.
The Shortcomings
Maybe a Little Repetitive
Although the book can be a bit repetitive at times, I see the revisiting of old ideas as one of the main factors contributing to high retention of new information, especially when the same conclusions are illustrated through different lenses.
You May Have Heard it All Before
One might also get the “I’ve heard this all before” feeling when reading this book. Granted, many key phrases like “halo effect” and “framing” can be recognized from everyday speech, but I believe breaking down the mental processes behind them serves as more than just a reminder. Developing a deeper understanding repeatedly in varied ways leads to quicker recognition of, and improved response to, common scenarios — which seems to be the ultimate goal of this book.
The Concepts
“It’s Them Not Me”
Some of the main ideas that most might recognize include the halo effect, regression to the mean, and the power of first impressions. We know that regression to the mean is a universal law of statistics, but hearing about specific instances, like how one friend can do nothing wrong in the eyes of another, resonates.
Vulnerability to some of these mental traps might be something that many acknowledge externally but often grant self-immunity for. This book hammered it home that a majority of us can’t afford that self-reprieve. If it’s a shortcoming, we tend to accept its existence within others but not ourselves.
“I Know But I Can’t Help It!”
In other cases, we might simply be guilty of indulging in mental conveniences. One common example is the blind trust of “experts” who predict the future of the stock market (and many other things), despite the numerous studies that prove such predictions futile. Similarly, mental willpower has been proven to decrease when one is physically tired, yet even after reading about this, I still catch myself submitting to a chocolate bar after a long day.
Using System 2
This book is all about harnessing the power of the deep-thinking, conscious part of the mind — “system 2” — to keep the impulsive “system 1” in check. While I’d like to think I was already upholding a relatively strong level of self-control over my thoughts and actions, I’ve noticed an extremely tangible difference in my thought processes since reading this book. Notably, it has helped me to:
- Make more sound judgments and informed decisions.
- Analyze my intuitions more effectively.
- Avoid cognitive manipulations, including but not limited to:
- priming, anchoring, and framing;
- statistical mind traps;
- the influence of references — numbers, categories, and percentages — on preferences and comparisons.
The Two Selves
A crucial area I enjoyed most and that Kahneman touched on for a decent chunk of the book was the interplay between the experiencing self and the remembering self. These two versions of the human self are often mixed and co-mingled, yet they differ greatly.
While it is the experiencing self that most seem to live for, it is the remembering self that keeps score and governs what we learn and decide. This gives it deciding power in the end, conscious or not, despite its occasional tendency to misrepresent memories.
The experiencing self doesn’t truly have a voice: we become bent on maximizing the qualities of future memories rather than future experiences, which is why we are obsessed with capturing moments and taking pictures.
One factor explaining this phenomenon is “duration neglect.” Time is our ultimate finite resource, yet we tend to ignore that — memories are usually dominated by intense moments and/or their endings. This is why human preferences succumb to quick, intense pleasures like gorging on food and sexual stimulation…and why we need to remember to maintain a balance between the selves.
Help Yourself!
Another reason a lot of this information might be familiar is because these cognitive patterns (more or less) are how we all think! Just because they are familiar, however, does not mean that they are something that one has truly internalized or consciously acknowledged.
In the end, I’ve accepted that many of these natural tendencies aren’t going anywhere, but after reading through this book I at least feel at peace with their inevitability and prepared to guide them the next time they surface. This mental trick is actually one of the many other lessons Kahneman elaborates on. If you’d like to hear more about it, then I recommend you check out this book!
