Thinking, Fast and Slow

Psychology

First published: 2011
Print length: 499 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011

Description

Daniel Kahneman explains judgment through two interacting modes of thought: a fast system that produces intuitive, emotional responses and a slower system capable of deliberate, logical effort. Drawing on decades of research, he shows how framing, loss aversion, cognitive biases, and overconfidence shape choices even when people believe they are reasoning clearly. Examples from business, investing, happiness, travel, and everyday planning reveal both the usefulness of mental shortcuts and the predictable errors they create. Kahneman also asks when intuition deserves trust and when careful analysis can correct it. The result is a wide-ranging account of how minds evaluate risk, construct explanations, and make decisions under uncertainty.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Direct · Essayistic · Technical

Pace

Measured

Tone

Cerebral · Earnest · Reflective

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

2 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

Knowledge and truthWealthWork

About Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman was an Israeli-American psychologist and economist whose research challenged the rational actor assumed by conventional economics. Working with Amos Tversky and others, he traced predictable errors in judgment to mental shortcuts and helped develop prospect theory. His books turn experimental findings into lucid explanatory structures, moving between compact thought experiments, research summaries, and examples from ordinary and professional decisions. Thinking, Fast and Slow organizes this work around intuitive and deliberative modes of thought, then examines framing, loss aversion, and overconfidence. Noise, written with coauthors, shifts from systematic bias to unwanted variation among judgments, using cases from medicine, sentencing, insurance, and hiring to show how institutions can measure and reduce inconsistency.

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Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English
ISBN: 9780374275631

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