Thinking, Fast and Slow

I read the Polish translation of this book. It’s considered a classic in its field and might be an interesting read if you’re a psychology student or enthusiast. However, if you’re looking for a practical guide to improving your thinking skills, there are more concise books available.

What is the book about?

Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics, explores how our minds work by describing two systems of thought: System 1 (fast, automatic, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, deliberate, analytical). The book details how these systems shape our judgments and decisions, often leading us to cognitive biases and errors. Kahneman draws on decades of research, including his work with Amos Tversky, to illustrate concepts like loss aversion, anchoring, framing effects, and overconfidence. The book also discusses the implications of these findings for economics, business, and everyday life.

The concept of Fast (heuristic-based) and Slow (deliberate, analytical) thinking is something we now take for granted, likely due to the influence of this book. For a practitioner, its core ideas could probably be summarized in about 50 pages. 😉

Kahneman organizes the book into five parts: an introduction to the two systems, heuristics and biases, overconfidence, choices, and two selves (the experiencing self and the remembering self). Each part is filled with examples of psychological experiments, some of which have been misinterpreted over the years, and the author attempts to clarify them. The book is a thorough exploration of how our understanding of intelligence and thinking has evolved over the past 50 years.

To be honest, it wasn’t a book for me. It’s a lengthy work, and from my pragmatic perspective, it’s simply too much-some parts were just boring. Still, I appreciate the depth and the historical context it provides for the field of behavioral economics and psychology.