Thinking, fast and Slow-Book review

The author starts with a confession of a modest goal (enrich talks at the office water coolers) and then proceeds to reveal his decades of research on human cognition -how we make decisions, choices and memories. There are two systems, he posited, one conscious and slow and involved, the other devoted to jumping to conclusions, mostly subconsciously. The book fleshes two characters(System 1 & System 2) who embody these systems and we get to understand their individual traits and the dynamics of their interaction.

This cognitive model also helps explain illusions such as anchoring, non regressive predictions and overconfidence. The operative model of our mind makes us susceptible to these biases and in most cases we are not even aware of it. 

This is an extremely smart book, quite balanced in building its case and discussing the implications of the result. It requires attentiveness to work through the various experiments illustrated in the book to explain the different theories and ideas. Also sometimes you need to summon personal experiences to evaluate if the theory explains your individual behavior.
In the course of reading the book, there were times when the book seemed to decode my motivation for action or inaction in my daily decision making. 

If you are trying to make sense of the 2016 US presidential election, the book provides very useful framework to interpret human rationality, gains & losses perception, biases and data interpretation.

Human existence is defined by our mortality, rationality and emotionality ; our societies are shaped by the sum total and in turn feedback to the individual. Don’t worry the book doesn’t indulge in such convoluted logic, this is just my random musing inspired by the book. 

This is a well researched and logically articulated book. I am in complete awe of Daniel Kahneman's work, with his focus on understanding individual decision making, he has developed a framework for institutional decision making and public policy discourse.

As I flipped the last page, the one thought that surfaced in my brain was what am I going to do about it, now that I know how ‘it’ works? 

I guess just stop and look closely whenever I press 'Submit'!(and  submit,,,)

I vs. We

'An unabashedly shameless person, that's what he is and I like him for that'
I could just nod my head in agreement. Everything he does is high on histrionics with gimmicks, the usual posing Facebook updates. Its like he has an audience and every time he needs to entertain them, surprise them, shock them. Get people to talk about him.
But he was past that amateur phase, he was plain unabashed. He did what he wanted and lived by the simple credo to try almost everything new under the sun. So he was different from the tribe which lives by the credo to live and act for the audience around.
Some try desperately to impress the audience around, some try desperately to please the audience around, some look for approval and validation. Its almost parasitic how we live for that audience. He had cut himself free from the stifling bonds and with a detached air he lived his life. Love him or loath him, he's impervious. I remember reading, 'its easy to get pity, jealousy on the other hand needs to be earned'. And believe it or not some part of the civil society is jealous of his willful freedom and his scant disregard of the latter.
The character, Howard Roark (Fountainhead) made me actually wonder about the individual and the collective identity of ours. The Indian philosophy of 'ahama brahmasmi' talked about a bigger I, one that encompasses the entire universe. For me the idea of Howard Roark was the antithesis of this belief. The only common ground that I could think was, 'integrity'.
Having that 'self integrity' almost blurs the line between those extreme choices of life. Simply put self integrity is when we are not some sell-outs. We know the motivation about our actions and it aligns with what we truly think and feel. Its not corrupted or influenced by the need of approval by the audience around.
Its a tough place to reach, but when you reach there you can truly shout out. "I am what I am!'.

This small piece is a lame attempt to deconstruct the human psychology. I would really love to read and write something really insightful. Till then its random thoughts like this. Honestly every individual you meet has something unique about him, something unique ticking inside him motivating his every move. Its interesting to observe the behavior, although its difficult to put your finger down on the motivation part. Somehow 'motivation' is a little fickle, it changes for people frequently. Talk of finding a way to live with the idiosyncrasies and fickleness of people, it is a whole new chapter which brings to mind a whole lot of 'ex-room-mates' and some 'current roommates'!