21A – Reading Reflection No. 2
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?
The general theme of this book is about our System 1 and System 2 processes of our thinking. System 1 is the elephant and System 2 is the rider. This means that system one is our innate, primal first reaction to stimuli, it is the fight or flight notion. System 2 is the logical, processing and slower “system” because it analyses thought processes with more precision and care than our initial reaction that is System 1. What is interesting is that through our practice and knowledge something that was previously in System 2 could fall back to System 1. This is because eventually that practice will become more routine and will demand a lot less effort.
The general theme of this book is about our System 1 and System 2 processes of our thinking. System 1 is the elephant and System 2 is the rider. This means that system one is our innate, primal first reaction to stimuli, it is the fight or flight notion. System 2 is the logical, processing and slower “system” because it analyses thought processes with more precision and care than our initial reaction that is System 1. What is interesting is that through our practice and knowledge something that was previously in System 2 could fall back to System 1. This is because eventually that practice will become more routine and will demand a lot less effort.
2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
This book enhanced primarily how I think. I’m very glad I read this book, because now I take a step back when I have a gut feeling or high emotional reaction. I take a step back and try to process things clearly, because that is the purpose of our System 2. This flows easily into my entrepreneurship skills because I want to listen to my System 1 response, but for my business to succeed I have to use my System 2 response to think of the logistics of my business plan. Another important chapter was ch.13 “Availability, Emotion, Risk”.
3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
Ok so the most interesting chapter for me in this book was chapter 5 because it worked with problems that we almost naturally come up with an answer (System 1 at work), but then again almost always get it wrong because we didn’t involve our System 2.
This was the example used:
“A bat and ball cost $1.10
The bat costs one dollar more than the ball
How much does the ball cost”
Think of an answer (answer at the bottom). So I would create some puzzles like this that would make the students in the class think more reflectively in the answers they come up with. After reading this book I want people to not ignore their gut feelings (system 1) because it is still crucial to our ability to perceive new facts with some sort of stress to mark it as important, but system 2 is highly important for our human ability to reason and logically come up with an answer to a problem. I want them to get it wrong, so they learn and appreciate the fact that they have the ability to think very logically. This is even more important for college students because we are still at a very high learning steep, and a puzzle like this will have a large impact on us.
This was the example used:
“A bat and ball cost $1.10
The bat costs one dollar more than the ball
How much does the ball cost”
Think of an answer (answer at the bottom). So I would create some puzzles like this that would make the students in the class think more reflectively in the answers they come up with. After reading this book I want people to not ignore their gut feelings (system 1) because it is still crucial to our ability to perceive new facts with some sort of stress to mark it as important, but system 2 is highly important for our human ability to reason and logically come up with an answer to a problem. I want them to get it wrong, so they learn and appreciate the fact that they have the ability to think very logically. This is even more important for college students because we are still at a very high learning steep, and a puzzle like this will have a large impact on us.
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?
My aha moment was that we fool ourselves when we think. It shouldn’t have come across as such an aha moment because I have always known we have our gut feeling that could be wrong, and that we should not always rely on it. But even by having it named, it helped clarify this understanding. The aha moment was because even really smart people can fool themselves; as seen above. We are not infallible. The familiar becomes pretty important to us, and has an effect on our thinking. We need our logical thinking, that comes through experience and teaching and learning. It makes me value my education and experiences a lot more.
My aha moment was that we fool ourselves when we think. It shouldn’t have come across as such an aha moment because I have always known we have our gut feeling that could be wrong, and that we should not always rely on it. But even by having it named, it helped clarify this understanding. The aha moment was because even really smart people can fool themselves; as seen above. We are not infallible. The familiar becomes pretty important to us, and has an effect on our thinking. We need our logical thinking, that comes through experience and teaching and learning. It makes me value my education and experiences a lot more.
*answer 5cents
Giovanna,
ReplyDeleteI am glad this book allowed you to gain knowledge and enjoyment. I really like your idea of puzzles and believe it matched with the book you chose. Your post does not have any grammatical issues and it fulfilled the requirements of the rubric. I was thinking of choosing this book to read myself. Logical thinking is important in this class and this book relates to this. Thanks for sharing, good job!
Rebekah
Hey Giovanna,
ReplyDeleteI also chose to read "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman and I found it to be very informative and interesting. The way the author went about writing this book seemed unconventional for a novel based on entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, he shared many valuable tips on how to make better decisions with your money. I like the exercise you designed based off the book. It would help students utilize both Systems of their brains very much.