Thinking, Fast and Slow

By Daniel Kahneman

Book Overview

Major New York Times bestseller
Over two million copies sold
Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011
Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of 2011
2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
Daniel Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's best-selling The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds

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 be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, 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 business and our personal lives--and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374533555
• ISBN13: 9780374533557
• Release Date: April 2013
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Mostly a disappointment

This book came to me highly recommended by a credible scientist. Thus setting up expectations. But, the book is primarily one old man's reminiscing about his academic work in the 1960's-1970's when academic psycho-babble was all the rage. A time when pop-psychologists (many of whom were legitimate psychologists) revealed what they thought were iconoclastic profound insights; but in reality they were insights that any wizened Iowa corn farmer, New York street huckster or Los Angeles advertising executive knew since they were 12 years old. Quickly the book becomes a search; looking for what had made the book so highly recommended. But in the end, each chapter of the book is like rummaging around garage sales in search of that one special find – maybe a stunning Capodimonte from the 1750's going for five bucks, or a 100 carat diamond in a box of pretty rocks going for a quarter each. In the end, one has rummaged around a lot of dusty old books, chipped mugs, outdated video games and a few broken bicycles, and come away with one pretty quartz crystal. I was particularly disappointed that the book had no references and no citations. Until I got to the end when I was astonished to discover there were 418 references – all numbered, but NOT A SINGLE FOOTNOTE in the text so one can align the given footnote at the end of the book to a particular location in the text. I suppose if someone was an early, socially awkward, sophomoric teenager who was really "into" pop-psychology this would be a great introduction on how normal people think. Otherwise, a good editor could easily reduce this 500 page doorstop to a 20 page pamphlet. You should not be surprised if you find my copy in your neighbor's next garage sale.

Easy to Apply

Great book that you can apply to everyday life. Look at your own biases and the biases of others and how it influences your thinking. A little dry but if you apply it appropriately it’s eye opening.