Reading Reflection No. 2
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
1. The general theme of the book is that humans think using two systems. The first system, Kahneman calls “System 1” is the system that informs how we think about things at first glance. This system does not do much work and bases our judgments off of what we know already. Decisions and judgments that come from this system are impulsive and not thought out. The second system, called “System 2” is the system that people think they always use, but they don’t. Most people think they are rational and logical, but this type of thinking is usually only produced when we use “System 2”. Kahneman explains how this system is not employed as often as we would like because of its energy-wasting nature. Kahneman explains how thinking hard actually uses more glucose, which would not be favorable from an evolutionary perspective. Kahneman continuously disproves the adage “humans are rational beings” and he seems to achieve this throughout the book by citing studies showing how humans aren’t quite as logical as we think we are.
2. This book enhanced my learning for ENT3003 by changing how I think about people. I used to think that people were logical and rational, generally. This book constantly reminded me that this is not the case. Entrepreneurship seems to contain many problems regarding human behavior, and this book has deepened my knowledge of how humans think and make decisions.
3. If I had to design an exercise for this class that is related to this book I would use some of the word problems that were mentioned in the book. The book had several simple math word problems that were attempting to show how humans are impulsive and irrational. For the assignment, I would have the students complete these word problems and reflect on how they thought about these problems.
4. One of the biggest surprise moments or “aha” moments I had while reading this book was when I read about priming. Kahneman mentions many experiments that show how “priming” affects people’s decision-making ability. One experiment showed people money without them realizing, and then asked them to help other people. The people that were subconsciously shown money were much less likely to pick up a pencil for another person. Similar experiments to this regarding money were explained. This showed me how humans are affected by what they have seen, heard, and thought about recently.
Hey Cooper, glad to hear you enjoyed your read as much as I enjoyed mine! I completely agree with the theme of your book. I had a firm belief up until this past month or so that humans were rational beings. Made sense to me. My book touched on this too and it's crazy but humans aren't rational at all, and I feel like that's because emotion is the most powerful driving force for human behavior. Changing your perception on how people really are changes so much about your approach to things. Humans are interestingly constructed, and I think it's so cool that we got to see a little of that through this assignment
ReplyDeleteHey Cooper, I didn't read the book but your reading reflection is so organized, so I could get the main point and enjoyed your reflection. The assignment that you came up with sounds very interesting and I think it helps students improve the ability of problem thinking and decision making. i hope this reading will help you improve the ability of decision making and broaden your horizons. Good post!
ReplyDeleteHey Cooper, I really enjoyed reading this particular blog post because you chose a different book to read than I did. You also described the book amazingly in your part 1 of your post. Your description was so got that it got me very intrigued in the book and actually made me want to read it. I also think that part 3 were you described an assignment you give to the class from this book was also very creative and cool. You want to take actual questions from the book and give them to students in the class. Great idea!
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