Reading Reflection No. 2

In this exercise, I'd like you to select a book from the second half of the Official ENT 3003 Reading List and report on it. This part of the list focuses on books that cover, generally, entrepreneurship, business, and learning. I'd like you to address the following in your post:

1)         I decided to read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.  I would have to say that that in reading this book I realized there to be many themes throughout.  I will later delve into what I thought my biggest surprise/’aha’ moment later which, in my opinion will actually describe the overall theme of the book. Themes throughout the book include the interaction of system 1 and system 2 of the mind and how they interact.  System 1 work autonomously while system 2 requires effortful thinking.  This theme early on sets the base for the book and helps the reader understand the operable mindset, per say, of how we think as individuals.  This sets up the second theme with our thinking and the role that heuristics play in all of our thinking patterns.  Throughout the researchers have a focus towards why individuals have difficulty thinking and making judgments statistically.  The next part dives into examining how overconfident we are as individuals.  This in turn plays a role specifically into our ability to think statistically, especially when it comes to chance.  The mind has the general ability to accidentally underestimate the power of chance and over compensate correlation between two events and how this plays into our ability in thinking and making judgments.  This leads into the second to last theme surrounding choices with a focus on economics.  The theme here surrounds how, as previously mentioned, the workings of system 1 and 2 occur, and work together but influence all the choices we make.  It focuses as well on our framing bias and that when some risk is presented with a negative outcome versus a positive one we tend to take the risk more often when it is presented with a negative outcome as if we have something to prove.  Lastly, the book comes together examining the two selves we have – the experiencing self and the remembering self.  Overall, it examines the conflict between the two and our general difficulty in pursuing happiness as individuals while still satisfying our ‘two’ selves that form our identity.  What memories do we make, how do we make them, and how do we let our experiences as we move through life affect and exist alongside our remembering self. 

2)         This book I think really enhanced what I have learned so far in ENT 3003.  First off, it helps explain many of the decisions and the ways in which I have responded to assignments in the class.  Overall, it definitely will help me look openly towards assignments to counter the framework I generally analyze assignments with, to then be able to attack/think about the rest of the assignments from an additional, different point of view.  This book connects with each individual assignment in some way, shape, or form.  Every assignment involves some sort of analytical thinking.  Thinking Fast and Slow analyzes the mind and how we think throughout, therefore this new found knowledge can be used in every assignment. 

3)         If I were to design an assignment for this class specifically around this book I would make everyone answer five basic questions that coincide with the five parts of the book: Two Systems, Heuristics and Biases, Overconfidence, Choices, and the Two Selves.  I would have everyone write down their knowledge or what comes to mind based on all these titles for each part of the book.  I would then have them write about how they arrived at their answers or what memories or experiences shaped their answers surrounding the title of each part. Then I would have them analyze themselves in terms of the titles of each part.  After I would have them read each part, and after each part I would want them to reflect on the same question that was originally asked and reflect on their original answer.  After the book is finished and I would incorporate a cumulative response in a general reflection on the work as a whole and how it has affected, personally, that individual. This is the assignment I would create around this book. 

4)         Lastly the biggest ‘aha’ moment of this book was realizing that, this is one of the few books that can be summarized by the title, Thinking Fast and Slow.  This may seem like an impossible, loaded statement, but if I had to describe this book in four words this would be the only way possible to describe and summarize all five parts of this book.  The reason it is my biggest ‘aha’ moment was because it simplified and helped my understanding of the book.  For me when I first started reading this book, it required a lot of concentration and effort by me.  I had to make sure it was absolutely quiet with no distractions around me because the material was so thick.  But once I realized the title summarizes the book and brings all the parts together I saw how everything was connected.  I saw how each part built off the previous one and that cumulatively the book comes together and helped me with the way I analyze everything now.