Thinking Fast and Slow, Blinkist

Summary of the Thinking Fast and Slow book. Does not cover the things mentioned in the other note.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts to immediately make conclusions.

Availability Heuristic

You overestimate the probability of something that you hear more often/remember easily. Eg. We think accidents kill more people than strokes.

Substitution Heuristic

We substitute the actual question with an easier to answer question. Eg. "Will this man be a good secretary" becomes "Does this man fit my mental idea of a good secretary?"

Memory Failures

• Duration Neglect: We remember specific memory from an event rather than the total duration.
• Peak End Rule: We overemphasize what happens at the end of the event rather that the entire event.

Focus Difference in System 1 and System 2

When we encounter an easy problem we are relaxed/not focused. In this mode, the system 1 thinking is strengthened and system 2 weakened. When we are in this state, we will be more creative and intuitive. But we are more likely to make mistakes.

When we are focused on something, system 2 is more powerful. We'll be less creative - but we will be more analytical - and we will double check our judgments.

An easy way to switch between systems is to make the absorption of information more different(eg. listening to something on 2x / using difficult to read fonts.)

Loss Aversion Drives action

We act more from fearing lose rather than trying to gain.