Talha Mumtaz's Key Ideas from Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman

Do you know that even the single stream of thoughts we usually have is governed by two parallel cognitive systems which Daniel Kahneman calls System 1 and System 2.

System 1 is fast, automatic and emotional. It helps us recall 2 x 2 = 4 on the go. With System 1, your brain helps you make quick decisions in your everyday life.

System 2 is deliberate, slow and logical. It helps you solve complex problems. With System 2, your brain produce thinking that helps you understand problems, figure out the reasoning and then solve it.

System 1 is focused on identifying patterns and associations in our environment. It then stores these patterns in memory where the System 2 takes hold of these patterns and tries to make sense of it. Also, once System 1 adds these impressions and associations to our memory, it becomes beliefs in our memory.

As quoted earlier, intuition is a process built upon the set of unconscious biases collected and gathered over our lives. Even though System 1 may be looked down upon due to its susceptibility towards biases, it is the one that has always helped us survive due to its approach to making decisions quickly. When in life-threatening situation, System 1 helps us make quick decisions that helps us get out of those situations. Such as hearing a distant voice in the dark heightens our senses and help us perceive the danger.

Unlike System 1, system 2 is often on the rest mode and only activates when there is a complex problem or something that has not been stored in our memory. Also, as system 1 governs the quick decisions, it helps us identify mistakes in others’ behaviour in everyday life. For example, the halo effect is where we perceive a person’s character based on their first impression. That is why a handsome, charming person is often perceived as someone who is intelligent, successful and having good manners. However, this thinking is of course flawed.

Mostly, our brains want to save energy and therefore would always want to make quick decisions even if it risks making the wrong call. However, as system 1 cannot always solve the big problems, it will call system 2 in action where the system 2 then does the reasoning to solve the problem.

System 1 is a different self where it helps us form memories that we use to draw our self from. System 2, on the other hand, is different self because it evaluates the present and past information to make a decision. However, as the system 1 is not always reliable, we need to refine our thinking process to be able to make sense of situations. For example, a consistency in events may be a better indicator of identifying a certain behaviour rather than relying on the past information from our memory. You should know, however, that is not easy for us to change our behaviour even in face of stats.