5 minute summaries

1 quote, 3 ideas & 1 question from each episode

__________

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Daniel Kahneman – Why We Contradict Ourselves and Confound Each Other

On Being with Krista Tippett

6 May 2021

50mins

FEATURING

Owltail Summaries

1 quote, 3 ideas & 1 question from each episode

_________

Daniel Kahneman – Why We Contradict Ourselves and Confound Each Other

6 May 2021

50mins

Quote

"The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained"

Ideas

1

Part of Daniel Kahneman's research is that our brains have two systems of thinking.
System One thinking is fast, intuitive, and completely unreflected. It's all the things we do automatically or without thinking; for example, walking, knowing the answer to two plus two, driving a car.

System Two is the brain's slower, more deliberative and analytical mode. It doesn't do two plus two, but it picks up 17 times 24. It gets involved in difficult life decisions, in self-control, and sometimes, in checking and correcting intuition.

The main thing about System One is that it can't be turned off. The main thing about System Two is that it's lazy. It's very capable of endorsing and rationalizing what our System One thinking is telling us to do and say.

1

Part of Daniel Kahneman's research is that our brains have two systems of thinking.
System One thinking is fast, intuitive, and completely unreflected. It's all the things we do automatically or without thinking; for example, walking, knowing the answer to two plus two, driving a car.

System Two is the brain's slower, more deliberative and analytical mode. It doesn't do two plus two, but it picks up 17 times 24. It gets involved in difficult life decisions, in self-control, and sometimes, in checking and correcting intuition.

The main thing about System One is that it can't be turned off. The main thing about System Two is that it's lazy. It's very capable of endorsing and rationalizing what our System One thinking is telling us to do and say.

2

Conclusions come first, and rationalizations come later.
The way that the mind works, very frequently, is that we from a decision, or we from a belief, and then the stories that explain it come to our mind.

We often take the reasons that people give for their actions and beliefs, and our own reasons for our actions and beliefs, much too seriously.

Because even when we destroy the arguments that people raise for their beliefs, it wouldn't change their beliefs. They would just find other arguments.

2

Conclusions come first, and rationalizations come later.
The way that the mind works, very frequently, is that we from a decision, or we from a belief, and then the stories that explain it come to our mind.

We often take the reasons that people give for their actions and beliefs, and our own reasons for our actions and beliefs, much too seriously.

Because even when we destroy the arguments that people raise for their beliefs, it wouldn't change their beliefs. They would just find other arguments.

3

In one sense, well-being is something that you experience every second of your life. You are happy or not in the moment, and you can recall that continuously. This the well-being of the experiencing self.
But on the other hand, you can stop people and ask them to think about their life and to say whether their life is good or bad. That's the well-being of the remembering self. It's an act of memory and construction.

Both are important, but more often than not, what people care more about is more closely associated with the remembering self. They want to have good opinions of themselves & a good story about their life.

3

In one sense, well-being is something that you experience every second of your life. You are happy or not in the moment, and you can recall that continuously. This the well-being of the experiencing self.
But on the other hand, you can stop people and ask them to think about their life and to say whether their life is good or bad. That's the well-being of the remembering self. It's an act of memory and construction.

Both are important, but more often than not, what people care more about is more closely associated with the remembering self. They want to have good opinions of themselves & a good story about their life.

Questions

1

Can you think of something where you came to a conclusion first before rationalizing?

1

Can you think of something where you came to a conclusion first before rationalizing?

What else is in the episode

1

Why we're not often surprised enough.

1

Why we're not often surprised enough.

2

How people react to pain in a surprising way.

2

How people react to pain in a surprising way.

3

The two sides of overconfidence

3

The two sides of overconfidence

Who is Daniel Kahneman?

1

A Nobel prize winning psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment, decision-making & behavioural economics.

1

A Nobel prize winning psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment, decision-making & behavioural economics.

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