Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of our most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many disciplines – including economics, business, law and philosophy – and have been hugely influential on Daniel Ariely, Richard Thaler, Steven Pinker, Jonah Lehrer, and Daniel Gilbert, among many other well-known writers. But, until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book. In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman introduces the “machinery of the mind.” Two systems drive the way we think and make choices: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Examining how both systems function within the mind, Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities and also the faults and biases of fast thinking, and the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and our choices. The role of optimism in opening up a new business and the importance of luck in a successful corporate strategy, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future and the psychological pitfalls of playing the stock market – each of these can only be understood by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decision making. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choice are made in both our business and personal lives – and how we can guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Kahneman will change the way you think about thinking.