Book Summaries

Chapter 1: The Characters of the Story (Thinking: Fast and Slow)

P.20- intuition from experience is good but not all people make intuitive judgements from experience (they are inexperienced ) – Enter system 1.

October 29, 2021Book Summaries

P.20- intuition from experience is good but not all people make intuitive judgements from experience (they are inexperienced ) – Enter system 1.

System 1: fast, immediate (I like this) involuntary, effortless

System 1 can think metaphorically, causally, associatively but not statistically (a mode that requires multiple forms of thinking at once) – not accessible to system 1.

Examples: complete phrase “bread and …” Detect hostility in voice. Drive car on empty road. Recognise “meek and tidy soul with a passion for detail” resembles an occupational stereotype.

System 2: slow, deliberate (should I like this?), voluntary, effortful. Operations of system 2 are associated with subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.

Examples.fill out a tax form, tell someone your phone number, check the validity of a complex logical argument.

P.21 – system 1 can generate very complex ideas but only system 2 can order them

P.28 – we have many cognitive illusions. The question is whether they can be overcome. Probably not. System 2 would need to put in too much effort to make sure no system 1 errors are made – a tedious, impractical way to live life, but a compromise is possible. Recognise situations where system 1 errors are likely and the stakes are high.

System 1 is a nickname for automatic system

System 2 is a nickname for effortful system.

“This is your system 1 talking. Slow down no let your system 2 take control”

Chapter 2: Attention and Effort

P.31 – “In the unlikely event of this book being made into a film, System 2 would be a supporting character who believes herself to be the hero.

YARPP List

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