Key Principles

  • We use 2 cognitive systems when thinking; they work together, but they often clash with each other. 
  • System 1 makes fast instinctive judgments based on familiar patterns. It kicks in without much effort, working automatically.
  • System 2 requires focus and operates slowly and methodically with greater effort required.
  • System 1 automatically generates instinctive suggestions for System 2. If endorsed by System 2, those instinctive suggestions turn into beliefs and actions.
  • We tend to seek reasons for random events, think rare incidents more likely than they are, and tell simple stories for complex reality while making our own experiences more important than they really are.
  • We distort reality due to our “hindsight bias,” which means realigning memories and past events with new information.
  • Due to the fact that system 1 operates automatically, biases can be difficult to prevent. Since system 2 is slow and energy consuming, it’d be wise to involve it mostly when the stakes are high and when we’re about to make an important decision. 
  • How a person estimates value and risks is all down to “loss aversion” and the “endowment effect.”
  • We have “2 selves” in our mind that evaluate our life experiences differently:
  • Your “experiencing self” is the one that lives your life. (System 1)
  • Your “remembering self” evaluates your experiences of life, drawing lessons from them which help shape your future. (System 2)
  • Your two systems, or selves, disprove the theory that human beings are rational (since the two systems often give conflicting thoughts).
  • The difference between the two selves means that there is happiness we experience and happiness we remember.
  • We tend to prioritize the remembering self. More often than not, it’s your remembering self that makes future decisions.
  • One way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition.
  • Using complex language when simpler language is sufficient makes you less credible.
  • Looking at the future through your past experiences can cause flawed predictions. The future is never 100% certain. 
  • When faced with an extremely important but difficult question, it’d be wise to integrate and align your “two minds.”
  • Laziness is built deep into our nature. We tend to gravitate to the least demanding course of action in order to save energy.
  • We tend to overestimate how much we understand the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events and circumstances.
  • We lose touch with our intuition (System 1) when we are uncomfortable and unhappy. On the other hand, we are more prone to logical errors (System 2) when we are in a good mood. 
  • We are prone to an illusion of control. We focus on what we know and neglect what we do not know, which makes us overly confident in our beliefs and predictions. 
  • We underestimate the amount of time a goal or project will take. This is due to “planning fallacy”: adopting the ideal and ignoring the unknowns and the many ways things could go differently.
  • We tend to use stereotypes to shortcut our decision-making, even when those stereotypes contradict actual facts or common sense.
  • We lean toward loss aversion — the idea that losses hurt more than gains. We tend to fantasize about tiny chances of big wins (winning the lottery) and obsess about tiny chances of negative outcomes or big losses. 
  • Your happiness is largely determined by what you focus on. It is determined by the meaning you give to events rather than the events themselves. 

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The above is inspired from the bestselling book "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

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