How To Think Smarter 24/7

QUOTE OF THE DAY

THINKING FAST AND SLOW

461 Words | 1 Min 41 Sec Read

If you were given a bat and a ball that's worth a dollar and ten cents and someone told you that the bat costs one dollar more than the ball, how much did the ball cost?

If ten cents immediately came to mind, then you've been fooled by what author and psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls your fast-thinking system.

If you used your slow reasoning system, you would realise that if the ball costs 10 cents, then the bat would have to cost a dollar 10 cents, and the combined cost would be a dollar 20 cents.

We think this way because we have two different thinking systems:

Our automatic and intuitive thinking system is number one, and our reasoning system is number two.

If we don't learn to slow down and verify our automatic thinking, we might find ourselves in the wrong career, start a business with the wrong partner, or stay in a dysfunctional relationship for too long. There are dozens of ways our intuitive thinking system can fool us.

Here are two of them that you need to look out for from the book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman…

Frequent exposure:

Author Daniel Kahneman says, “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.”

Marketers have always known this fact: the more we see something, the more we trust it. That's why if we don't do our research before an election, we'll trust the candidate whose name we've heard or seen the most.

We are also more likely to trust brands that we have heard of multiple times because of this frequent exposure bias.

In order to bypass this exposure bias before making a major decision, we need to ask ourselves: is this the best option or just the option I've been frequently exposed to?

Status Quo bias:

Why do we stay in careers that we don’t like, or why do CEOs invest money in failing projects? This is because of the endowment effect.

After decades of research, Daniel Kahneman says losses loom larger than gains; in fact, his research shows that the average person will psychologically weigh a loss twice as much as a gain.

This explains why many people instinctively turn down the following bet:

Flip a coin for $150 on heads or lose $100 on tails.

If the people who turned down this bet would slow down and use system two to challenge their system one intuition, they'd realise that if they took that 10,000 times, they'd be essentially guaranteed to make money.

In order to not be trapped by the fear of losing something you once had, you need to ask yourself, ‘What opportunities am I losing by maintaining the status quo?’

TAKEAWAYS:

Using your automatic fast-thinking system can get you into some avoidable trouble. Here are two of those biases that get you into that trouble.

• Frequent exposure bias: the more you see something, the more you trust it.

• Status quo bias: The average person will psychologically weigh a loss twice as much as a gain.

BOOK OF THE WEEK ⤵️

The book of the week is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - It’s a book about how our minds are typically tripped up by error and prejudice and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking. Check It Out!

CREATOR OF THE WEEK ⤵️

williamscxtt

View more on Instagram

The creator of the week is @williamscxtt, a self-improvement & fitness creator who brings a refreshing take to the mindset side of social media - Check him out!

LESSON OF THE DAY ⤵️

Sometimes, stepping away to rest will lead to more, better, and less stressful work than trying to get everything done today.

ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF US?

We get it, for some the daily emails can be a lot, but the last thing we want is to lose you as a subscriber because of that.

So we came out with an alternative: The Kaizen Weekly.

One hard-hitting edition a week, every Friday.

We both know you need The Kaizen in your life, and whether thats once a week or once a day, thats up to you.

If you want to change your preferences, check out this link:

CHANGE TO THE KAIZEN WEEKLY

Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here

Got any questions or thoughts about this edition? Send us an email at [email protected]