Thinking, fast and slow
by Daniel Kahneman · first published 2011
42% recommend49% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
Explains the two modes of thinking, intuitive and deliberate, and how cognitive biases distort estimates, statistics, risk and self-assessment; suited to engineers and general readers wanting to decide better.
Common criticism: Some of the priming studies it cites have failed to replicate
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can
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…Peter Bevelin - Seeking Wisdom - From Darwin to Munger The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman Charlie Munger - The Psychology of Human Misjudgment Predictably Irrational - by Dan Ariely Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life - Twyla Tharp Michael Michalko - Creative Thinkering Thinking in Systems: A Primer - Donella H. Meadows The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt
on “Ask HN: What books to read on developing mental models and increasing cognition?” ↗It's hard to choose a single book, as I've read (or listened to) a number of books this year. I'll choose Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman-ebo...). The way it changed my life was to make me actually think more about the way my mind operates, the decisions I make and the way these…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013?” ↗Highly recommended for everyone: "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahenman. If you have difficulty interacting with people 1. How to win friends and influence people (Easy read) 2. Seven habits of highly effective people (Harder read) To learn how to write…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗…what the HN community considers the top books of all time to add to my list, both fiction and non-fiction. My current list is as follows (no particular order): 1: Happy City (Charles Montgomery) 2: Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) 3: Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) 4: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel) 5: The Tender Bar (J. R. Moehringer) 6: The Power…
on “Ask HN: I have no commitments for the next 6 months – what books should I read?” ↗…read) Developer Hegemony (red pill for developers!!!) Bargaining For Advantage (reasonable) Tempo: Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative-Driven Decision Making (abstract as hell but rewarding) Thinking Fast and Slow (loved it) The Elephant In The Brain (seriously underrated) The Brain That Changes Itself (inspirationally freaky) The Power of Habit (good!) The Secret Barrister (mildly disturbing) Thinking In…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…Triumph 8. The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over 9. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion 10. Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change 11. Thinking, Fast and Slow 12. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success 13. Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life 14. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World 15. Radical Candor: Be…
on “Ask HN: Which non-programming books are a beneficial read for programmers?” ↗* Elements of Statistical Learning - Hastie, Tibshisrani * (Lot's of machine learning books to list: PRML, All of Stats, Deep Learning, etc.) * Active Portfolio Management - Kahn, Grinold * Thinking, fast and slow - Kahneman * Protein Power (the Eades') / Why we get fat (Taubes) * Why we sleep (Walker) * Deep Work / So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport) * Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) * Getting to Yes (Fisher)
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…article (that most people really are good drivers and that the average is drawn "low" because of very bad drivers) is flat-out wrong. The correct explanation is described in detail in Daniel Kahneman' Thinking, Fast and Slow. It's impossible to assess our own position on the grand scale of driving ability; when the brain gets asked a difficult question, it quietly changes the question to a similar one, much easier to answer.…
on “Jailed criminals think they are more kind, trustworthy and honest than average” ↗> given that at least some of those arguments are wrong and all seemed practically proven, I am obviously just gullible Not gullible, he just needs to read Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow". The intuitive mind is unable to distinguish between consistency and truth. That is, a consistent story will always seem "proven" to the intuitive mind. "Seeming practically proven" means little. You…
on “Epistemic learned helplessness (2013)” ↗…literally impossible. I walked away from this article more convinced than ever that there are big problems with this field of research. And I don't "want" to believe it, either -- I loved Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. Speaking of which, kudos to Kahneman himself for being (apparently) a more committed empiricist than the other psychologists discussed here.
on “Can smiling make you happier?” ↗…Reusable Object-Oriented Software * Kent Beck - Extreme Programming Explained * Kent Beck - Planning Extreme Programming * Michael C. Feathers - Working Effectively with Legacy Code * Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow [EDIT] Correct the author for legacy code
on “Ask HN: What books had the greatest effect on how you structure your code?” ↗…arguments not full of fallacies. You will certainly never see them in mass media, as mass media needs to influence your opinion, not provide background for making a good decision. Daniel Kahneman in his Thinking fast and slow book wrote plenty on reasoning, check it out if you haven't, it'll open your eyes on reasoning (I know the book had some crucial things wrong for his theory, but a lot of things throughout the book are…
on “No surprises here – On the absence of information in today’s media” ↗…Machine STATISTICS Ayres, Ian (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart Bernstein, Peter (1996) Against the Gods: Remarkable Story of Risk Kahneman, Daniel (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow Silver, Nate (2012) Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail, but Some Don't Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005) Fooled by Randomness, 2E _________ (2010) Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable,…
on “Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?” ↗…happens when they're around. I've seen this kind of behavior a lot more often since I began looking for it. BTW, if you're interested in cognitive biases more generally, check out Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/...).
Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow". It's a great account of things we know about how the mind works, with amazing insights.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011” ↗