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Thinking, Fast and Slow

By Daniel Kahneman

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About the book

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics, summarizes decades of research on judgment and choice, much of it carried out with Amos Tversky. He describes two modes of thought: System 1, fast, instinctive and emotional, and System 2, slower, more effortful and more logical. Chapters examine the biases of fast thinking and effects such as anchoring, loss aversion, framing and the habit of swapping a hard question for an easy one, and suggest that people place too much confidence in human judgment. It also covers his work on prospect theory and happiness. Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal spent two years helping research and write it, and it won the 2012 National Academies Communication Award.

Barack Obama was reported to have read it, and Mark Manson praised its authoritative account of the cognitive biases that distort how people understand the world. Peter Attia listed it in an article on why people are not wired to think scientifically.

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This book has 20 recommendations

John Lilly (Partner/Greylock Partners)

This book is amazing—it didn't change my mind, so much as it has changed the way I think. It helps to understand the difference between the way you make quick decisions, versus considered decisions—it takes different mechanisms in the brain. Understanding which you're doing at any given time can have a profound impact on what you ultimately decide.

Barack Obama (Former USA President)

A few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text.

Recommended by Ola Olusoga (Co-founder/Populum)

Source: Interview with Ola Olusoga: How Books Have Guided His Path To Self-Discovery

Michael Herrmann (Founder/Terminerinnerung)

Summary of the life's work of a world-leading researcher in psychology, and his findings. Extremely interesting.

Tudor Mihailescu (Finance and Business Enablement Manager)

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is more than a book, it’s really a compendium of wisdom. As a result, you can only sip it slowly, it’s a very condensed writing. Kahneman proves, after many years of studies and an amazing partnership with a Amos Tversky, what huge gap lies between how we think we act/make decisions and how we really do. This has had an impact both on my professional life as well as personal one, in the broader area of decision making. With this “bible” under the belt, one can further study this space of decision making with other great works like Nudge (Thaler) or Decisive (Heath/Heath).

Armina Sirbu (Serial Entrepreneur)

It explains how our brains works without claiming this. So much better than other books that claim to do this.

Auston Bunsen (Co-Founder/CBlocks)

That book really opened my eyes and changed the way I think. I try to open it and read random parts every now and then so I can just remind myself of some brilliant anecdote that illustrates one of his points.

Cody McLain (CEO/SupportNinja)

Gave additional insight into how the human mind works, our inherit fallacies and biases. Understanding oneself better is one of the keys to living a better and more plentiful life.

Anant Jain (Co-Founder/CommonLounge)

This one is a deep dive into behavioral science and human psychology. It’s shocking, entertaining, and introduces you to the fallibility of your own brain in quite a delightful way.

Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz)

Captivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale?

Gilles Bernhard (Co-Founder/SCPlanner)

I wasn't expecting anything particular from it, and feared to be overwhelmed by technical terms about how the brain works and such. But I am extremely happy with it! It is very simple and explains a lot of traps our mind falls into when making decisions. It definitely changes the way you make and see decisions in personal and business life. The book explores cognitive biases in everyday's life as well as in finance, marketing and business, and shows us what is the process thinking behind these biases.

Erik Rostad (Creator/Books of Titans project)

I call 2018 my Year of Kahneman. Until 2018, I had never heard of him but now I see him everywhere. I read this book towards the beginning of 2018 and after that, at least 1 in 4 of my other 52 books for 2018 referenced Kahneman. Not only did they reference him, they built key ideas in the book from Kahneman’s research.
This was not only a good book, it’s an important and foundational book.

Michael Shalyt (Co-Founder & CEO/Evo.Do)

[One of the five books Michael recommends to young people interested in his career path.]

Gabriel Weinberg (CEO & Founder/DuckDuckGo)

The books I keep coming back to are the ones where I took away lasting mental models. These include [...] Thinking, Fast and Slow (about cognitive bias models).

Chris Goward (Founder/WiderFunnel & GO Group Digital)

Here are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: [...] Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Daniel Buttner (CEO & Co-Founder/Lofelt)

It’s an amazing life’s work of a Nobel Prize winner and the insights into human bias are fascinating. To me, this is the modern continuation of Plato’s 'Allegory of the Cave'.

James Clear (Author)

On James Clear’s Best Psychology Books - James Clear

Mark Manson (Author)

The Nobel Prize winner’s authoritative description and explanation of the cognitive biases that wreak havoc on our ability to understand the world.

Peter Attia (Founder/Attia Medical)

On Peter Attia’s Why we're not wired to think scientifically (and what can be done about it)

Jay Shetty

On Jay Shetty’s 10 Books That Changed My Life (On Purpose with Jay Shetty)

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John Lilly, Barack Obama, Ola Olusoga, Michael Herrmann, Tudor Mihailescu, Armina Sirbu, Auston Bunsen, Cody McLain, Anant Jain, Marc Andreessen, Gilles Bernhard, Erik Rostad, Michael Shalyt, Gabriel Weinberg, Chris Goward, Daniel Buttner, James Clear, Mark Manson, Peter Attia, Jay Shetty

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