Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
1. The main theme of the book is that your brain uses two methods of thinking, a conscious system and an automatic system. He explains the differences between these two systems and that your brain doesn't use the full capacity of its intelligence. He explains the "gut feeling" that we all get and when to trust it and when to ignore it. The object of this book is to learn ways to understand your brain and eliminate errors in judgement.
2. This book connects to what we have learned in this class by explaining the way the brain works and how it wants to expend the least amount of energy. When making the important decisions that an entrepreneur has to make, the book explains that we need to be able to slow down and make the correct decisions by activating the conscious systems in our minds. Another big theme in the book is to "keep your emotions at the door" when making decisions about money and act rationally rather than emotionally.
3. One exercise from the book involves a math problem where a baseball bat and ball cost a combined $1.10 and that the bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? The activity would be to think of the answer quickly and write it down. Once you realize that the answer was wrong, re think about the question and you will see that the ball costs $.05 rather than $.10 which is what everyone initially thinks because of your brain's tendency to be lazy. If the ball were to cost $.10, then the bat would have to cost $1.10 which would make the combined total $1.20. Write down your reflection and how you can try to eliminate these intellectual errors in the future.
4. I think my biggest aha moment from the book was the activity and how I completely fell for it even after reading about how to watch out for intellectual errors like that. I didn't really know what to expect from the book when I read the title but I think that it definitely surprised me to learn that both the automatic and conscious systems fight for control during every thought that humans have.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a very interesting book that I would want to read. I think that this book could also be good insight into the way that buyers think. Since our brain does not want to exert a lot of effort, we probably do not spend a lot of time thinking about whether or not we should buy something.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteI also chose to read Thinking, Fast and Slow for my reading reflection #3 and I believe we both had similar experiences. I really enjoyed the themes of this book and how to basically hack your thinking. The exercise you described from the book about the bat and ball also got me. I fell for it and just allowed my system 1 thinking to guide me to the wrong answer. Nice write-up.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteThinking Fast and Slow was one of the books that I was close to choosing on, and based on your reflection it seems really interesting. The concept of two modes of thinking, the conscious and the automatic, explains a lot about human desire and decision making. Your sample exercise relating the book to the class seems like a really fun and neat way to experience the different modes of thinking.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteThinking fast and slow was a book I read for my second reading reflection and I got a lot out of it. I found that the book pushed me to reconsider the way I was going about my life in that I often would jump to the first easy conclusion. I think that going forward, we as a society should focus on longer attention spans.
Kyle, this is actually the book I read on my second reading reflection and found it incredibly insightful and interesting. Similar to you, I also found it interesting contemplating how the concepts in the book were so prevalent throughout my every day life. It's funny how once you understand how your consciousness operates, at least to an extent, you can become a sort of objective observer of your own thoughts.
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