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Thinking, Fast and Slow [Paperback]

Daniel Kahneman
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (217 customer reviews)

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Book Description

3 Nov 2011

Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in psychology challenging the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of the world's most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound impact on many fields-including business, medicine, and politics-but until now, he has never brought together his many years of research in one book.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think and make choices. One system is fast, intuitive, and emotional; the other is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities-and also the faults and biases-of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behaviour. The importance of properly framing risks, the effects of cognitive biases on how we view others, the dangers of prediction, the right ways to develop skills, the pros and cons of fear and optimism, the difference between our experience and memory of events, the real components of happiness-each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Drawing on a lifetime's experimental experience, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our professional and our personal lives-and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you take decisions and experience the world.



Product details

  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Allen Lane (3 Nov 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1846146062
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846146060
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (217 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 265,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

Daniel Kahneman is among the most influential psychologists in history and certainly the most important psychologist alive today...The appearance of Thinking, Fast and Slow is a major event (Steven Pinker, Author Of The Language Instinct )

This is a landmark book in social thought, in the same league as The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author Of 'the Black Swan' )

Daniel Kahneman is one of the most original and interesting thinkers of our time. There may be no other person on the planet who better understands how and why we make the choices we make. In this absolutely amazing book, he shares a lifetime's worth of wisdom presented in a manner that is simple and engaging, but nonetheless stunningly profound. This book is a must read for anyone with a curious mind (Steven D. Levitt, Co-Author Of 'freakonomics' )

This book is a tour de force by an intellectual giant; it is readable, wise, and deep. Buy it fast. Read it slowly and repeatedly. It will change the way you think, on the job, about the world, and in your own life (Richard Thaler, Co-Author Of 'nudge' )

About the Author

Daniel Kahneman is a Senior Scholar at Princeton University, and Emeritus Professor of Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
217 of 231 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Thinking Well, Thinking Poorly 9 Feb 2012
By M. D. Holley TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
You are at the cinema watching the latest film. Fifteen minutes before the end, the projector explodes and the screening is terminated prematurely. You feel that the experience was ruined. However, Daniel Kahneman knows better - he asserts that you are mistaken! Your own mind has deceived you. A combination of `duration neglect' and the `peak end rule' is responsible. You have difficulties distinguishing your memories from your experiences. He claims you found the experience blissful (despite having missed the end), no matter what you believe.

This is an example of one of the rather silly assertions which can be found towards the end of this 418 page book. There are quite a few equally foolish theories throughout the last 200 pages.

This is a book of two halves. The first half is absolutely inspirational. The writing style here is excellent. In order to illustrate his points, the author provides many exercises for the reader to perform. In doing these you conduct little experiments on your own brain, which will astonish you time and again by the obvious errors and self deceptions it keeps making. By page 200 I was feeling this was one of the very best books I have ever read. The material shows beyond doubt that the mind of the human is full of flaws, biases and delusions.

And then comes the second half. The writing becomes more turgid, the little exercises stop coming, and the lessons become more and more flaky, culminating in the example I give at the beginning. What went wrong?

Mr Kahneman points out that the human brain is biased towards finding coherence where there is none, and that we are susceptible to a frightening level of overconfidence. No where is this better illustrated than in the second half of his own book. Having found many instances of irrational thinking, particularly where statistics are concerned, Mr Kahneman seems to become obsessed with irrationality, and seeks to find the same pattern in all aspects of human behaviour. He becomes more and more overconfident with the tidy and coherent story he has constructed, and produces some spectacularly silly theories as a result.

I would give the second half of the book barely one star. But read it for the first 200 pages, which fully deserve five stars!
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153 of 170 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick thinking 12 Nov 2011
By Hande Z TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Daniel Kahneman has produced an excellent book. He continues to build and expand on the famous paper he and Amos Tversky published in 1974 ("Judging Under Uncertainty", a copy of which is usefully appended to this book) and has since spawned innumerable books on the theme (eg Wray Herbert's "On Second Thought"), and even related themes like Nassim Taleb's "Black Swan". "Thinking Fast and Slow" is not a textbook; it is intended for the layman who wants to have a clear and deep understanding of man's cognitive functions. Most of Kahneman's studies will amaze readers not familiar with this subject. For example, when tested, it is still remarkable that the clinical judgments of trained professionals are less accurate than statistical predictions based on a few scores or ratings. Hence counsellors who interviewed students were less accurate in their predictions on the students' performance than statistical predictions using only a few denominators such as High School grades and aptitude test results. The reason Kahneman, a psychologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics was that his (and Tversky's) thesis was applied by economists to understand why economic and financial predictions so often go wildly wrong when they were (or so it was believed) so carefully and rationally made.

This review also hopes to point readers to a book I read as a student in 1967. It's called "Straight and Crooked Thinking" by R H Thouless. That book has so many similar points and Thouless was a teaching psychologist from Cambridge University in the UK. Although Thouless' book concerns flaws in the use of language and logic in thinking, it also discusses the effect of hidden bias and prejudice. Straight and Crooked Thinking has just been published in the 5th edition by R H Thouless' grandson, C R Thouless. The first was published in 1930. Kahneman's book will likely be as long lived.
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75 of 87 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly Mixed Bag 25 Jan 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I dont normally write reviews but felt I should with this book.

Im probably your average reader - an interest in psychology and to some degree, self help/improvement publications.

I have done a fair bit of academic reading, so understand the difference between an academic style of writing and a book for 'the masses'. This is where I think the book falls down. Some chapters of the book really are extremely well worded and presented to the reader - concepts are clear and not unnecessarily complicated. Other chapters lapse into a pseudo-academic style which I found tedious and tiresome. I don't really need all the statistical data and complicated information behind the proposals Kahneman makes - I want him to package it up into a readable format which dose not require me to read it three times to 'get' what he means. It really is as though someone else wrote parts of the book, as its style does seem to change significantly in places.

So, some sections are quite brilliant and inspirational, worthy of 6 starts from me....but other chapters mar the reading experience, making it quite a chore. A mixed bag........
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Jumping to conclussions
This is the sort of book that will either turn you off quickly, or make you spend weeks (months, or years!) thinking about the gems that you will find within. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Mr. M. A. Spridgeon
4.0 out of 5 stars A little laborious, good information.
This book fundamentally attacks the notion that we are fundamentally rational.
The individual chapters are quite well written and it's hard to disagree with the fundamental... Read more
Published 7 days ago by A. I. Mackenzie
5.0 out of 5 stars SLOW DOWN
This book is written very clearly and simply to explain why many of the decisions we make are all too human. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Bexster
4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, it tells you how we think and decide....but
Unlike other reviewers or readers, I read this book right to the end.

I sort of got the feeling though, that Daniel was trying to put into print his 'life's work' before... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Miss M. L. English
3.0 out of 5 stars Great subject, just not exciting enough for an average reader
I consider myself a run-of-the-mill reader when it comes to the genre of this book. I'm not an expert but I want to vary my reading subjects so the commute into work is less... Read more
Published 8 days ago by D. J. Burton
4.0 out of 5 stars A great start then peters out badly
Echoing many of the reviews here this is a good 200 page book with some fascinating ideas about perception and decision making. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Tony Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars No wonder it's a bestseller.
Forget everything you thought you knew about thinking. In complete control of your brain and the decision-making progress? Think again. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Paul Fillery
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating insight
Thinking Fast & Slow is a fascinating insight into the working of the human mind. Kahneman separates brain function into "system 1" and "system 2". Read more
Published 9 days ago by Old Hen
4.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile thought provoking read
A fascinating insight into how we think and make decisions. It should be compulsory reading for all politicians. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mrs. SG Flynn
3.0 out of 5 stars Sound Thinking, but Original?
Daniel Kahneman is widely hailed as one of the world's most important thinkers. While such a title makes me giggle, it prompts serious questions. Is he an original thinker? Read more
Published 11 days ago by HeavyMetalMonty
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