{"id":40980,"date":"2025-03-05T09:37:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40980"},"modified":"2025-03-05T09:37:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:37:55","slug":"my-experience-with-thinking-fast-and-slow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/my-experience-with-thinking-fast-and-slow\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience with Thinking, Fast and Slow"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read Daniel Kahneman\u2019s classic work Thinking, Fast and Slow this week. <\/em>This book has been on my shelf but has gone unread until now. It\u2019s grounded in psychological studies of decision-making and perception. The book is about biases of intuition. I\u2019ve been familiar with the book for several years as it\u2019s part of our cultural zeitgeist. I bought it a few years ago, but it sat on my shelf until this week. After an inspectional read this week, I want to return to it over the summer or after the program.<\/p>\n

As I process my thoughts, I think this week will be a regression to the mean – I feel anxiety about this post (Kahneman covers Regression to the Mean in chapter 17, pg. 175-184). Last week, I felt like I had a good idea that I wanted to explore. This week, I want to share my experience with the book and highlight what I\u2019m taking away. This differs from my usual approach of reading and analyzing a specific portion. I will explore my experience and lay out the themes of the book. I want to test myself with this experiential approach.<\/p>\n

Often, Kahneman begins a section or a chapter with little demonstrations to demonstrate System 1 and System 2 thinking. I usually didn\u2019t have the experience he would describe. On page 50, he tells us to look at the words \u2018Bananas\u2019 and \u2018Vomit.\u2019 He says you will experience \u201cwith no reason to do so\u2026a temporal sequence and a causal connection\u2026forming a sketchy scenario in which bananas caused sickness.\u201d [1]<\/a> That didn\u2019t happen to me. When he would show line puzzles that were meant to appear at different lengths in System 1 but, in actuality, were the same length (pages 27 and 100), I saw them as the same length. After the fifth or sixth time of not experiencing what he said I would experience, I began to question why.<\/p>\n

Kahneman writes, \u201cSystem 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.\u201d [2]<\/a> While \u201cSystem 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it\u2026\u201d [3]<\/a> These puzzles rely on our System 1 to explain them without much deeper thought. It\u2019s automatic to assume the lines are different, and there is no reason to distrust \u2013 so we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

My initial reaction to the fact that these didn\u2019t trick me was that I was focused, which prepared me to be in System 2. My initial System 1 thinking was:<\/p>\n

I was reading the book Inspectionally and trying to understand ideas behind it. Plus, I\u2019ve seen similar demonstrations and been \u201ctricked\u201d by them. Kahneman describes my attention as turning up the \u2018cognitive ease dial\u2019 to \u2018strained.\u2019 He writes that cognitive ease is a dial between easy and strained. He writes that \u201ccognitive strain is affected by both the current level of effort and the presence of unmet demands.\u201d[4]<\/a> My cognitive strain was already elevated because of the way I was reading.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After reflection, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s quite right. I don\u2019t think I was primed for System 2 thinking because of my focus. Instead, because I know the book is about biases of intuition and have previously been exposed and tricked by similar stimuli, my System 1 response was to distrust. Intuitively, I distrusted and tried to see a larger frame. Then, System 2 kicked in and attempted an explanation. In hindsight, I could notice my mind flipping to System 2. I\u2019ve been more aware of the phenomenon ever since.<\/p>\n

Had I read the book in an elementary way or even a few years ago when I first bought it, I would have experienced it differently and likely been \u201ctricked\u201d by the demonstrations. Kahneman says, \u201cThe best we can do is a compromise: learn to recognize situations in which mistakes are likely and try harder to avoid significant mistakes when the stakes are high. The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people\u2019s mistakes than our own.\u201d [5]<\/a> I think I\u2019ve learned to recognize situations in which these puzzles are likely.<\/p>\n

Of course, this may all be an illusion. I\u2019ve projected a nice story explaining why I felt I wasn\u2019t \u201ctricked\u201d by these diagrams. Is my explanation valid or accurate? I don\u2019t know. The book has made me skeptical of my reasoning power and initial intuition. I don\u2019t even trust this is a good post (that\u2019s probably my anxiety, regression to the mean, and other factors I don\u2019t know well enough).<\/p>\n

1 John 4:16-19 says,<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.<\/em> There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. (emphasis mine)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is the challenge I am experiencing in a world where the best we can do is to learn to recognize situations where mistakes are likely: Have I learned to recognize situations where I can be unloving and unlike Jesus? I distrust the demonstrations because of prior exposure. Have I been exposed to God so much that as he is, so am I in this world?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m leaving this book feeling like I didn\u2019t get enough of it. I feel like I\u2019ve only scratched the surface on Kahneman, and I\u2019m looking forward to learning more from reading your posts and our discussion.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m headed to Indiana this week for our denomination board meeting. I\u2019ll be gone Thursday through Saturday. Pray for my travels and meetings. I\u2019ll read and respond to your comments and blogs when possible!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>, Psychology\/Economics (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), 50.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Kahneman, 20.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Kahneman, 21.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Kahneman, 59.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Kahneman, 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read Daniel Kahneman\u2019s classic work Thinking, Fast and Slow this week. This book has been on my shelf but has gone unread until now. It\u2019s grounded in psychological studies of decision-making and perception. The book is about biases of intuition. I\u2019ve been familiar with the book for several years as it\u2019s part of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3397,2052],"class_list":["post-40980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp04","tag-kahneman","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40982,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40980\/revisions\/40982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}