In the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, the idea of cognitive biases and the dichotomy between two modes of thought, slow and fast, is studied and broken down. Kahneman dissects the difference between these two “systems” of thought, and why each of them is important in their own way. There is “fast” thinking, which is automatic, frequent, emotionally charged, and often unconscious thought. I immediately thought of this as instinctual decision making, similar to “trusting your gut”. On the contrary, “slow” thinking requires more of an effort, it is more infrequent, logical, and consciously done. This would be the process of anticipating something, as you are thinking about it before it happens. The book describes how even with the same inputs, these two thought processes will arrive at different results. It is very interesting to listen to the reasoning behind human decisions based on research.
I think the book connected to what we’re learning in this class in its emphasis on putting thought into things and making our actions intentional. As an exercise for the class based on this book, I would suggest giving a set of hypothetical scenarios, and having students report on which ones they came to immediate, intuitive conclusions, and on which ones they had to sit and think about their answer to. Then, they could reflect on why they believe the conclusions they came to within seconds occurred as “fast” thought evoking scenarios, and vice versa regarding the “slow” thinking conclusions they came to. It would be helpful to the student so they can better understand their chronological processes of thought.
Hey Emma!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to read this book, but it certainly sounds like a great read from your post. Thank you for your summary! How interesting is that the same input can product two totally different conclusions depending on the "fast" or "slow" thinking. Reflecting on my own life, I certainly can think when this is true.
Hi Emma! Based on your description of the book, it sounds interesting but complicated. However, I do think this book contains a lot of facts about the thought process and how people tend to make decisions at times and under different circumstances. I think the exercise you plan for this book will be interesting for students to show how much they have learned based on the chronological process of thoughts.
ReplyDeleteHi Emma,
ReplyDeleteI also read this book for one of my reading reflections. I think it was a very cool read. My "aha" moment/surprise for this book was that our minds are conditioned to be optimistic, which shocked me because I do not recall myself being optimistic all the time so that was interesting. But good summary, I like how everyone can resonate differently with the same book!