27A Reading Reflection No. 3

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The theme of the book focuses on the two systems of thought processing. System I is intuitive thinking. It’s fast, unconscious, automatic, everyday decisions, error prone. System II is rational thinking. It’s slow, conscious, effortful, complex decisions and reliable.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

In Part IV, it talks about bad events. It was interesting to see written in a book that we work harder to avoid losses than we do to secure gains. I had to stop and think about this for a minute. Do I strive to avoid loss or secure a gain? Do I strive to not get an F or get an A? My comments when discussing this with others is, “I cannot get an F,” which makes me see the point the book is making. I’m trying to avoid the F instead of securing the A.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

If I were to design an exercise for this class, I would ask the class a series of questions, and I would like to see if they use System I or System II to process the decision. I think we would be surprised to see who uses which System of thinking for each scenario. I’ve noticed when making decisions with my husband, I will use System I for the decision, but he will use System II. It drives me insane because although he comes to the same conclusion that I did with System I, I have to wait a little bit longer for him to reach the same conclusion as he goes through System II.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

The ‘aha’ moment in this book was Part II: Overconfidence. In reading this part, I learned I can be overconfident about a lot of things. I have never really thought about myself in this way. I like to believe I have a great intuition (I’m a woman after all) but being that this could be chalked up to overconfidence was eye opening to say the least.