Daniel Kahneman
Pensieri lenti e veloci

My brother gave it to me as a gift.

"Hey, I'm going to the seaside for 10 days, do you have a couple of books to recommend that will make me feel even more ignorant than I already am?"

He throws a 600-page brick at me. I thank him, smiling with a raised middle finger because I imagine it’s way beyond my modest abilities: I really thought it would be the usual incomprehensible pain in the ass pretending to be a clever essay.

I'm writing because I have to admit I was wrong. And not by a little. Kahneman, who among other things won the Nobel Prize for Economics in the early 2000s, with the ruthless elegance of someone who knows exactly where to strike, shows you just how much less sharp you are than you think. Actually, he sadistically dismantles piece by piece your stupid and unjustified self-confidence: those brilliant insights? Biases. Snap decisions? Crap. The certainties you've carried with you forever? The predictions of experts (finance first): dice rolls. Well-packaged self-deceptions by your lazy brain. The book puts you face to face with an uncomfortable truth: to really think—that is, slowly, with critical spirit—is an effort you avoid like the plague. You’d rather let “System 1” do the work, the fast, impulsive, dumb but convenient one. And you know what? We all do it because we’re evolved animals: instinct kicks in automatically, not just to save our lives, but also to simplify complex problems by reducing energy expenditure. All great—except for the small issue that the end result is often irrational and wrong.

But Kahneman doesn’t just point this out to you. He shoves it in your face with examples so simple that you fall for them, you laugh, and then you get pissed off. Because you understand you’re not the exception: you are exactly the target. And there’s no happy ending: rational thinking remains hard, exhausting, extremely rare even in academia. But at least after this book you realize when you’re going off the rails. Which is already something. It’s not a light read, but it might wake you up and give you a different point of view—or maybe not! But you won’t forget it, that’s for sure.

P.S. I apologize to the esteemed Dr. Debaserbot for the swear words but I ate a spicy peperonata...