Thinking, Fast and Slow.

• Author: Willis, Brian C.

Thinking, Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman's new book ties together the research done by him and many others over the past half century to provide a clear picture of how we think, how we decide, and how we make predictions about the future.

Thinking, Fast and Slow has two main "characters"--System 1 and System 2--meant to represent what Kahneman believes are the two distinct decisionmaking functions we use. System 1 is an automatic system of perception and decisionmaking. System 1 "continuously constructs a coherent interpretation of what is going on in our world." System 2 is the slow, controlled, deliberate process of analysis and choice that we perceive as thinking and deciding. In the mental world described by Kahneman, System 1 has far more power and influence over us than we realize.

Kahneman illustrates how the unseen workings of the systems cause us to make predictable mental errors. When Kahneman asked people how likely an event was to happen, he was able to prove they answered based on how easy it was for them to think of the event occurring. The question called for a statistical answer--what is the probability of a certain event occurring--and people answered the...