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Patrick Brown asked this question about Thinking, Fast and Slow:
What are the three most vital takeaways from this book and why are they so important?
Cindy We each have accumulated our own personal, intuitive brain that functions all the time and tends to guide most of our actions and decisions. But our i…moreWe each have accumulated our own personal, intuitive brain that functions all the time and tends to guide most of our actions and decisions. But our intuitive brain (system 1) is highly prone to a variety of biases and flaws.

Our more logical brain (system 2) seldom activates at all, and will even activate less frequently if we become tired (after too much logical brain effort). Without it's more cautious, devil's advocate analysis, we often make silly mistakes or even serious errors of judgement.

Trying to overcome our intuitive brain's flow (e.g. to overcome our natural bias), leaves us feeling uncomfortable and uncertain - even years after such an experience. We feel more certain and more at ease if we just go with our intuitive flow. But our intuitive brain is very flawed, so when we give it free reign we often do a lot more harm (especially to others we may have judged unfairly due to our bias).

The book implies there is no simple answer to this inherent flaw in our thinking. I'm guessing the fact that our intuitive brain can learn and acquire skill/expertise means there are ways to overcome at least some of the flaws. But it takes a great deal of effort, and, as the book points out, there may be some situations where it is much better to rely on computations/algorithms devised based on scientific evidence rather than attempt to overcome our flawed intuitive thinking.(less)
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
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