Thinking Fast and Slow

Often people struggle to come up with logical and practical solution to the problems at hand. This happens because we tend to approach the problem with combination of viewpoints. In his book Thinking Fast and Slow, the author Daniel Kanheman breaks down these view points into two systems of thinking- fast and slow. Understanding hows and whys of these systems will help us in taking a better approach of handling situation at hand making better decisions.

System One: Fast Thinking

This mode of thinking is based on emotions and sub-conscious reactions. The biases and personal experiences are the foundations of this thinking system. It is what we commonly call the 'gut instinct'. At times, it may be irrational and flawed.

When faced with a situation requiring decision making, the brain naturally makes associations and referencing to the past experiences. The natural tendency is to find solution quickly with minimal efforts. This reaction is subjective and has elements that may be harmful. This type of thinking has several pitfalls like, false assumptions, misinterpretation, lack of information to name a few. Yet, many adopt this kind of thinking pattern unconsciously.


Limitations:
a. Trying to fit new experience in the existing pattern of thoughts, which may be insufficient to fully analyze the new situation.
b. Comes unconsciously, thus, even after knowing the drawbacks, it is hard to break this habit.

c. Produce less optimal results when it comes to unfamiliar situations.
d. Mood of the person affects this system of thinking.

System Two: Slow Thinking

This system is based on a deliberate, slow and logical approach. This approach involves practical and systematic evaluation of the new experience before making any decision. This system results in better understanding of the situation and thus leads to better decisions being made. Yet, it is less frequently used at it requires conscious efforts to choose this system over the system one.

Better decisions and creating new patterns involves slowing down and taking time to understand the new/unfamiliar situation. The system two seems difficult to adopt for many as the familiarity of the system one creates a comfort zone that feels just right.

Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed.

System two not only enables better understanding of new experience and better decisions; but also gives an opportunity to replace irrelevant components that may come into picture in case of system one thinking. By using system Two thinking, old patterns based on incomplete information, false assumptions, illusions can be replaced with new thought patterns that are formed on basis of logical and systematic approach and better understanding of the situation. 

The consistent and strong practice of system two thinking eventually becomes a habit; resulting in growing ability to make better decisions more frequently.

Although, System Two thinking has more merits over System One, they both have value and are required. When used in conjunction, they created a completely new system of thinking. When system one thinking reaches a dead end it usually turns to system two thinking as a necessity; but, the ability to use them together can create magical results.

Evaluation of system one thought processes using system two processes creates a powerful combination for thinking better and making better decisions. That is to say, in any situation, the ingrained old thought patterns should be evaluated using a practical approach and their validity should be challenged, before accepting or rejecting the outcome. This results in better decision making ability.  

Thus, by slowing down a little and using best of the two systems, one can master the art of decision making that effectively uses logic and intuition.