Selling our Home: An Exercise in Thinking
In Thinking, Fast and Slow, author and Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman brings together decades of his research, along with discoveries of other psychologists and economists, to present his findings on how human beings think. In particular, he highlights his idea that the human brain utilizes two systems in our thinking processes that affect our judgements and decisions. System 1 is fast, automatic, can’t be switched off, and, though it has no sense of intentional control, it is the source of many of the choices and judgments we make.[1] System 2 is slow, deliberate, and requires unbroken, focused attention to complete the operations it undertakes.[2] He adds that we tend to “overestimate how much we understand about the world and… underestimate the role of chance in events,” making us overconfident in our conclusions, including conclusions about our own well-being.[3] Kahneman’s goal is to equip people to notice and correct faulty decision-making processes that can lead to damaging choices, and instead engage our slow-thinking abilities, which will lead to sounder decisions.[4]
Kahneman recognizes that constantly questioning our thinking practices is impractical and System 2 is too slow to make “routine” decisions. A compromise is needed, he says, in which we “learn to recognize situations in which mistakes are likely and try harder to avoid significant mistakes when the stakes are high.”[5] It is interesting to note that other psychological researchers would take this suggestion further, pointing out that the ability to be completely rational is not reasonable in our world where time and energy are limited. They suggest that “speed and frugality are just what we need to make the best decisions we can in the real world” and that the use of heuristics is generally the best approach to many real-world problems and therefore, not irrational.[6]
The complexity of the human brain and body amazes me and I am continually asking myself, “How did God intend the incredible human brain and body to live well within all of God’s creation? What is a practical application for the discoveries made by experts of our time? How does our knowledge of God’s presence in our lives affect how we weave these discoveries into our everyday routines?
I would have benefited from Kahneman’s wisdom ten months ago, when my husband and I sold our house, a process that involved quick gut-feeling decisions, as well as slow, deliberate calculations. Not being experts in real estate, we met with a professional realtor, Dee. Dee had thirty years of experience in the field. We learned that Dee operated on intuition, as well as on the “truths” of the housing market. She came highly recommend by a retired realtor friend and she spoke confidently of her skills and her recent success selling houses for prices which greatly pleased her clients. This sounded good to us and we hired Dee.
Regarding when to trust a self-confident professional, Kahneman suggest we look for two conditions needed to acquire and develop a skill:
- An environment that is sufficiently regular to be predictable
- An opportunity to learn these regularities through prolonged practice[7]
Dee’s thirty years in the field seemed ample time to hone one’s skills and learn from mistakes. However, the real estate market seems anything but “sufficiently regular to be predictable.” Our house selling journey unfolded with unexpected challenges. Dee repeatedly commented, “In my thirty years of selling houses, I have never seen this!” As we navigated the selling process, both Dee and my husband and I made decisions with positive and negative results. One might say that in the end, the final sale to a great buyer was largely due to, as Kahneman says about most stories of success, luck.[8]
One might say that, except for a factor that Kahneman did not mention, and that is prayer. We prayed throughout our house selling process and surprisingly, transferred the home to the new owners, as we were on our way out and they were on their way in, with a prayer in the driveway, as suggested by their realtor. Our house selling journey had a surprising conclusion, that worked well for everyone in the end.
How does prayer factor into the ways in which we think, fast and slow? We may not be able to rely on our own intuitions solely and confidently, and it does seem good advice to slow our thoughts and contemplate decisions carefully. But, as we operate in our everyday lives, how do we interact with the One who created our minds? I think there is wisdom in Kahneman’s research. I also think we can weave that wisdom into our belief that the living God interacts with us and in that interaction, our thoughts are formed and guided and so have the potential to shape our decisions.
Thanks be to God for mercy, grace, and guidance in our imperfect ways and our imperfect world.
[1] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 20-21.
[2] Kahneman, 21-22.
[3] Kahneman, 14.
[4] Kahneman, 4.
[5] Kahneman, 28.
[6] Howard Rachlin, “Rational Thought and Rational Behavior: A review of Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox,” Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 79, no.3 (February 26, 2013): 409–412.
[7] Kahneman, 240.
[8] Kahneman, 9.
About the Author
Jenny Steinbrenner Hale
10 responses to “Selling our Home: An Exercise in Thinking”
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Jenny,
Your question about how God enters into the decision equation is a big one. As people who believe in God our decisions and processing seem to have a centering element, that being our faith in God and that our decisions and the outcomes are not ours alone. So then our instinctual decisions must be grounded in our understanding of our creator too. Can you think of ways you have made snap decisions that looking back you knew you made it because of your faith and maybe someone else would have actually made a different decision?
Hi Sara, Thanks so much for your thoughts and comments and for your great question! I think some ways that I’ve made snap decisions based on my faith has involved conversations with other people in which I’m praying simultaneously for God’s wisdom and words. I’m trying to listen to God’s leading while engaged in discussion with my son, daughter, husband, or a co-worker. My hope is that I’m hearing God well and responding with God’s leading in the moment.
I appreciate your words: “As people who believe in God our decisions and processing seem to have a centering element, that being our faith in God and that our decisions and the outcomes are not ours alone. So then our instinctual decisions must be grounded in our understanding of our creator too.” I like the idea that our instinctual decisions can come out of our connection to God, even when we are not directly aware of that happening.
This is great food to ponder! Thank you, Sara, for spurring me on to deeper thinking.
Jenny,
This whole paragraph is worth great consideration:
How does prayer factor into the ways in which we think, fast and slow? We may not be able to rely on our own intuitions solely and confidently, and it does seem good advice to slow our thoughts and contemplate decisions carefully. But, as we operate in our everyday lives, how do we interact with the One who created our minds? I think there is wisdom in Kahneman’s research. I also think we can weave that wisdom into our belief that the living God interacts with us and in that interaction, our thoughts are formed and guided and so have the potential to shape our decisions.
I am so happy that you and your husband were able to sell your home and it was a good outcome for you and the buyer! I love your acknowledgement of needing to go to God in prayer!
Have you found that you are able to go to God quickly in prayer or is this a second brain system process? Do you have examples of quick and slow prayers? My prayer is that we might know prayer in both systems in our brain. I know that I want to go to God quickly!! I also want to know Him deeply/thoughtfully.
I am pleased you prompted me to think of prayer and how this relates to our thinking!!
Hi Kristy,
Thank you so much for your comments and thoughtful questions. I like your ideas as expressed in: “My prayer is that we might know prayer in both systems in our brain. I know that I want to go to God quickly!! I also want to know Him deeply/thoughtfully.” I had not thought of prayer exactly in terms of both systems of our brain, but I like that! Sara mentioned that as we are centered in God, we naturally are making decisions that originate out of our relationship with God. I like that, too!
In response to your questions, I would say that I’m working on going to God quickly, but it is probably a secondary thinking response at this point. I do have some examples of quick and slow prayers. I was offering quick prayers this last week as my colleagues and I were interviewing people for a position on our team. I was intuiting various impressions of the candidates and also wanting God’s leading in choosing the right person to join our program. I found myself praying for wisdom throughout the interviews.
An example of a slow prayer could be my thoughts and prayers around preparing to vote in the upcoming election! I really want to be informed on the issues and I want to understand the candidates’ positions as much as I possibly can. I am continuing to work through this process in my reading, listening, and praying.
What about you? Do you have examples of slow and fast prayers?
Jenny, I appreciate your question on where prayer fits into this. I often ask myself how the promptings of the Holy Spirit fit into all that I think through. Do my instincts reflect what the Spirit is prompting in me? Or do the questions and second guessing of my initial thoughts show the Spirit? Even further, what do I do if what I feel like the Spirit is telling me is different from my thoughts from either system 1 or 2?
Thanks, Caleb, for your comments and reflections. Yes, I resonate with all of your questions! It seems like all of those scenarios can be possible in the same person, maybe even within the same day. I’m feeling thankful for Kahneman’s insights and the opportunity to become more aware of the way I think, and in that process, to be more aware of the way I hear God. I wonder if the wrestling with and deep thinking on these issues is one way that we are drawn even closer to God.
Jenny,
Thank you for sharing your examples of fast and slow prayers.
My fast prayers are always going! Among the examples of these are one word prayers: Help! or, I find myself praying for my children often: “Encourage my daughter, Lord” My deeper, thoughtful prayers come when I journal or when I pray with others.
I have enjoyed this discussion Jenny! Lets keep training our brains to pray fast and slow!!
Thanks, Kristy! The one-word prayers are quick and powerful. Yes, let’s keep the conversation going.
Jenny,
I love reading your posts. They are always filled with much insight and love for Jesus.
Prayer is certainly a key aspect needed in our daily lives as Christians, and can be system 1 thinking, or system 2 thinking… At times it ought to come naturally. Other times it ought to be slow and thoughtful.
I must admit, there have been times in my life that I have neglected prayer and it has not turned out as it should have. I believe this is because I did not lean on the Lord like I needed to. Thank you for your post.
Hi Tonette, Thank you so much for your comments. Yes, this topic of decision-making does make us think about how connected our continual thought processes are to God, doesn’t it? I like the idea of always keeping a running conversation with God throughout the day. Isn’t it amazing that the creator of the universe interacts with us in our ordinary situations? That seems to make our days anything but ordinary! Here’s to an extraordinary week!