thinking, fast and slow

Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002--an astonishing accomplishment considering his background is in the field of psychology. In Thinking, Fast and Slow Kahneman explores the relationship between the many intuitive, automatic choices we make and the judgments that require a slower process of thinking. He dubs these two modes of cognition “System 1” and “System 2”, respectively.

For instance, if I ask my teenage son to add 2 and 2, he would quickly respond: 4. His response would be automatic; he would answer without having to think about it. He would use System 1.

When he was first learning to add, however, this simple computation would have required the use of System 2, a slower process that involves counting—which, at very young ages, requires a great deal of mental effort.

To simulate the use of System 2 for most adults, I ask you to try the following exercise that’s taken from Kahneman’s book:

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