Thinking Fast & Slow By Daniel Kahneman
..Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.
While the subtitle of this review might seem to imply that the book lies in the self-help category, it actually alludes to one of the biases of human cognition- the focusing illusion. We are conditioned to predict overall state of our life based on very small (and even unrelated ) events such as fortuitously finding a coin lying somewhere before rating our overall satisfaction in life. Daniel Kahneman’s work is about biases such as availability bias & anchoring that affect a lot of our decisions. He makes demonstrable claims that challenge the rational agent model of economics and brings to the fore a new field- behavioral economics. This work is not merely a description of biases, but a strong foundation in how we can make better decisions in our lives by becoming aware of them and working towards knowing when we are biased.
It took me about a year to complete this book because of two reasons:
1. It has a lot of redundant information in form of examples. Kahneman doesn't merely make sure that his theories are clear in the minds of the reader but tries to introduce them to the way reader thinks.
2. There is a lot to ruminate in each chapter before one can move to the next chapter.
I did not want to consume this work in one go, but go through it slowly, learning something every week.
While the first point renders the book dull sometimes, I don’t think it is without merit. The work is written in simple language and sufficient examples to make any reader appreciate its content. While Kahneman does seem to be gloating in certain paragraphs, it wasn't much of a pain to go through it because of the excellent content.
I highly recommend this work to everyone who wants to make better decisions. This work is lauded as one of the greatest work in behavioral economics, and I think everyone can benefit from this kind of research.
