Thinking fast and slow...

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374275637

by Daniel Kahneman.

A good book that covers the way we think. Of the many brain quirks Kahenman covers in this book, he makes the point that we can more easily spot errors in jundment in others, than in ourselves. And he hopes to enrich our vocubulary when we do so.

He doesn't cover how we should accomplish this. This raises good questions... How do I solicit feedback without becomming too uncertain? How can I give this feeback without being insulting? Of course he doesn't answer these. If there was an easy answer to those questions, then life would be very different.

Thinking fast and slow covers the two styles of thought that we have-- fast and emotional, or slow and more deliberate, Our, our experiencing self, and our remembering self. These two selves have different wants and needs, which can be the source of many of our internal contradictions.

He makes the point that when we are very duration blind. For example, when we look back on an event, we tend to compess our feelings about the event into the peak, and the end, ommiting the duration. We will have similar feelings about a 3 day vacation, or a week long vacation, if both vacations had the same high point, and the same end. This memory compression can lead to many strange decisions.

He argues that for real happiness, we need to focus not only on the peak and the end, but the average happiness through out.

I've read a number of books like this; neuro-psycho-behavior-economic books. The studies that comprise these books are starting to blur together. It's difficult to take the core of truth in these books, and translate it to everyday life.