Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ is the book born out of the economist, psychologist and Nobel Memorial Prize winner (in Economic Science) Daniel Kahneman. Staying true to the nature of the author, the book bases its content with facts from behavioral research.

Throughout the book, Kahneman takes us on a tour of the mind and explains the two systems on how we think:

• The Fast – Intuitive & Emotional
• The Slow – Deliberative and Logical

These systems offer practical and enlightening insights into how decisions are made in both our business and personal lives and shows us how the two systems work in tandem to shape our choices.

Kahneman taps into the topics of how we elude realistic facts in a situation, where we create coherency by attributing causality to events, but not to non-events.

For example, he covers the following topics and convinces us as to why we feel a certain way: 

• The feeling of “ease” in various scenarios is a cognitive familiarity, i.e., a situation where you feel satisfied and at ease in gaining and processing information. 
• First impressions matter more than we think due to the Halo effect, where people tend to assess other people's traits based on early emotional impressions rather than first assessing the traits and then forming an emotional impression. 
• Human mind doesn't understand non - events, these non events are assumptions and coherency by creating attributions to past events. 

To put it simply, Kahneman explains how we undervalue unknown variables such as the role of fortune, the role of coincidences and many others pertaining to each situation.

Kahneman offers citations from behavioral research studies to help improve your thought process and make you aware of the importance of “Thinking Slow” and properly assessing the situation. He makes you understand the exceptional capabilities of the human mind and engages the reader with a touch of lively conversation on how we think throughout the book.

If you need more convincing to read this book, it was the 2012 winner of the National Academies Communication Award for best creative work that helps the public understanding of topics in behavioral science, engineering, and medicine! 

Written by Bhavana Kasirajan
​Bhavana is the Assistant to Equity Partner at J. Sagar  Associates, a prominent Law firm in India. She is an avid reader of Leadership books. Connect with her on LinkedIn!