Thinking, Fast and Slow

Interesting topic - but audiobook wrong format

Any additional comments?

This is a fascinating book - outlining key research areas in the psychology of decision making. It also does a very good job explaining clearly the fundamentals of statistics in research - I wish it had been available when I was doing my psychology degree! BUT - it is a difficult book to digest in audiobook format. There are lots of references to the PDFs (difficult to refer to when driving!) and there are a lot of "lists" which you have to hold in your head whilst the theory is explained. It would be much easier to digest in traditional paper format.

105 people found this helpful

Brilliant. DK is a genuine mind reader!

Who am I to say this noble laureate is brilliant, but I'll chuck in my two pennyworth anyway. Kahneman shows you how you think and how easy it is to be deluded and misled by the way your brain just happens to work. Some of the book is quite hard work, and sometimes it is a bit slow reading (laboured points), but the content is fascinating and also important. It will probably change how you think, view and live your life, which is quite something for a mere book.

41 people found this helpful

Sensational: you'll understand how your mind works

What made the experience of listening to Thinking, Fast and Slow the most enjoyable?

The surprise, when you again and again, stumble over your own behaviour being described in the book. How you use assumptions, shortcuts and reduction of information to make everyday decisions, and Kahneman even exposes it to you with a quick math question regarding a baseball and a bat...

What was one of the most memorable moments of Thinking, Fast and Slow?

...when I was proud to have no glitches in some questions before and then stubbled over a question with animals and an ark...

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book wasn't easy to stop listening...

7 people found this helpful

Excellent book, but not a great audiobook.

The contents of this book are extremely good, but unfortunately it has too many figures, and too many thought experiments that involve juggling information for the audio format to be effective.

25 people found this helpful

Didn't work as an audiobook

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the paper version, but not the audiobook. I found there were too many references to visual things, which would have been easier to look at. Also, it's impossible to interrupt the book as there aren't any chapters on the audiobook (the Audible app crashes all the time, so no point in using that) It requires a lot of attention to follow...if you're a visual person, I would recommend the book.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator isn't very engaging. He has a nice voice, but isn't very dynamic.

21 people found this helpful

How we think

An excellent book, very well read. The source document for many other snippety books on similar subjects, this book delves a bit deeper and gives a more complete account of how we think, how we unconsciously apply biases and the impact of luck on performance. An ear-opener in many ways from a Nobel prizewinner with decades of examples to give and some nice personal stories. Can't recommend highly enough.

15 people found this helpful

Fascinating, but be prepared to concentrate

If you enjoyed works on behavourial economics such as 'Nudge' then you should listen to this. Daniel Kahneman is the godfather of the discipline and you get a nobel laureate giving you a comprehensive and fairly user friendly account of his pioneering work in this fascinating area. I only gave it four stars because i found it hard to follow when listening to it. He references PDFs which i think come with the download but i didn't have in front of me when walking the dog, and I ended up having to rewind to try and understand the bits i didn't understand, mostly giving up and going with the flow (ah, system one). I'll probably end up buying the book to go back over it, but i'm glad i downloaded it as otherwise i would never have read it. Recommended but be prepared to concentrate if you want to really understand it.

39 people found this helpful

Excellence surpassed

It is not often I would describe a book as 'priceless' but Thinking, Fast and Slow definotely warrants such praise, at least from this corner of the World.

The narration was excellent - I often forgot I wasn't actually listening to Daniel Kahneman (the author) personally as the delivery was faultless.

The subject matter however was exemplary! I have always had a healthy interest in both my own decision making process and needed to understand it, from a business perspective, in others.

Often however, such learning can be quite dry but not in this instance.

The exercises provided - many instantly available to grasp by just listening, some needing you to access accompanying documents - conveyed the point being made exquisitely.

I'm so thrilled with this book that it has beasily become my No.1 recommendation to like-minded friends and family.

Grab it, enjoy it ... and know yourself, oh so much better!

16 people found this helpful

Difficult but Insightful

Would you listen to Thinking, Fast and Slow again? Why?

I will definitely listen to this again because I found some parts difficult to understand and I believe a second listen would help me get to grips with them.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The 'econs' because some people I know would perceive themselves as entirely logical beings and it helps highlight the fact that realistically our brains struggle to work in that way.

What about Patrick Egan’s performance did you like?

His voice is well suited to giving lectures because it sounds intelligent and coherent.
I disagree with other reviews that criticise his voice as boring because I think it is more the difficult aspects of the book that make it appear boring.
One day when I'm a Granddad and telling stories to my grand-children, I would like a voice like Patrick Egan's.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

There were some bits that were very interesting and left me thirsty for more information but equally there were other bits that were hard to digest and I felt like I needed a break, if anything just to analyse the information in my own head and let it sink in.

Any additional comments?

Although I think the content is good, I think it has been miss-sold as an audio book because for me the statistical problems are hard to digest if they are being spoken to you in real time, whereas in a paper book you can pause on a problem and let your brain comprehend it which is how I believe this book was designed.
There were also a lot of references to the PDF, which in a paper book would just be illustrations. It defies the point of an audio book if you have to read a PDF!

2 people found this helpful

Just can't get into it

I have tried and tried to get into this book but find myself becoming bored and lost after 15 minutes. The narrative is a little flat and doesn't keep me in a state of interest and neither does the book. It all came across old fashioned and probably over complicated for the mainstream. If you're into psychology you may be better equipped and more interested in this. If you're like me - no real experience in psychology, but interested to find out more and delve into the human psych, then I would recommend looking at other books.

10 people found this helpful