Book: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Theme
The general theme of this book involves viewing the mind as an entity comprised of two different cognitive "systems". The first system thinks "fast". It is ususally unconscious, automatic, and guides most of our everyday decision making, but is very error prone. The other system thinks "slow" and is conscious, effortful, and is used to make complex decisions and solve tough problems. The book uses the model of these two systems to break down the minutia of decision-making and judgement, and offers ways to improve these often neglected skills.
How it relates to ENT 3003
Entrepreneurs are not often thought of as psychologists, but most of the great entrepreneurial figures were very in tune with their own decision-making and judgement, but also keen on how others are making their decisions and judgements. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you not only have to become hyper-aware of your own thought processes but also the thought processes of others in order to improve your judgements. This book does a good job of taking complex psychological principles and reframing them so that they can be applied in all fields, including entrepreneurship.
Class Exercise
If I had to design an exercise for the class based of this book, it would probably involve becoming aware of the two psychological systems by having students record 5 decisions they made using each individual system over the course of the day, and evaluating those decisions within the scope of entrepreneurship by thinking of ways in which to be more aware of your judgements.
AHA!
I think the biggest "aha!" moment I had when reading this book was when it made me realize how easy it actually is to be introspective and evaluate the ways in which you are making decisions. Each chapter in this book highlighted a cognitive principle that I found can be easily applied to my life.
Hey Dirk,
ReplyDeleteI did not read this specific book, but I think our books have some things in common, like yours talks about how it is important to know when to act fast and act slow and methodical. My book talks about how it is important to know many things about your market before acting.
Hey Dirk,
ReplyDeleteI actually read a different book, which was titled "How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big." It is very interesting to me that the book you looked into was focused on those two main ways of thinking, being fast and slow. I had never really thought of specifying a particular market by wether the buyer was using effortful or effortless thinking.