Thinking, Clearly or Not at All

One of the most transformative books I have ever read is the instant classic, Thinking –– Fast and Slow.

The masterpiece, by cognitive psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, covers their 40+ years of work on how humans think.

The book discusses how our brains work (poorly, mostly) and how we spend the large majority of our lives using somewhat suspect ‘heuristics’ (rules of thumb) to guide our day to day decision making. It is these heuristics that consistently lead us astray in our thinking.

[ This deck was originally presented to the office in the fall of 2019. The Coronavirus crisis of 2020 has brought the need for clear and unbaised thinking to the forefront like never before. ]

 

Especially in light of current events, the ability to detect in ourselves (as well as others) when our thinking is fundamentally flawed is essential. Those who can best extract the signal from the noise and think clearly have a distinct advantage over those who do not and cannot.

Embedded is the slide deck we assembled as a presentation for our office discussing the impact of Kahneman and Tversky’s work.