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41 " the brain is a machine for jumping to conclusions "
― Daniel Kahneman
42 " ...flow - a state that some artists experience in their creative moments and that many other people achieve when enthralled by a film, a book, or a crossword puzzle; interruptions are not welcome in any of these situations. "
― Daniel Kahneman , Thinking, Fast and Slow
43 " We have in our head a remarkably powerful computer, not vast by conventional hardware standards, but able to represent the structure of our world by various types of associative links in a vast network of various types of ideas. "
44 " I can best describe our state as a form of lethargy- an unwillingness to think about what had happened. So we carried on. "
45 " To teach students any psychology they did not know before, you must surprise them. But which surprise will do? Nisbett and Borgida found that when they presented their students with a surprising statistical fact, the students managed to learn nothing at all. But when the students were surprised by individual cases…they immediately made the generalization…Nisbett and Borgida summarize the results in a memorable sentence: ‘Subjects’ unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular. "
46 " At work here is that powerful WYSIATI ("what you see is all there is") rule. You cannot help dealing with the limited information you have as if it were all there is to know. You build the best possible story from the information available to you, and if it is a good story, you believe it. Paradoxically, it is easier to construct a coherent story when you know little, when there are fewer pieces to fit into the puzzle. Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance. "
47 " We have inherited from our ancestors a great facility to learn when to be afraid. Indeed, one experience is often sufficient to establish a long term aversion and fear. "
48 " The primed ideas have some ability to prime other ideas, although more weakly. Like ripples on a pond, activation spreads through a small part of the vast network of associated ideas. "
49 " A compelling narrative fosters an illusion of inevitability. "
50 " Correcting your predictions may complicate your life "
51 " Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it "
52 " Most importantly, of course, we all care intensely for the narrative of our own life and very much want it to be a good story, with a decent hero. "
53 " Emotional learning may be quick, but what we consider as “expertise” usually takes a long time to develop. "
54 " Many unfortunate human situations unfold [. . .] where people who face bad options take desperate gambles, accepting a high probability of making things worse in exchange for a small hope of avoiding a large loss. The thought of accepting the large sure loss is too painful, and the hope of complete relief is too enticing, to make the sensible decision that it is time to cut one's losses. "
55 " Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance. "
56 " If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do. "
57 " 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. "
58 " This is the essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution. "
59 " A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive as well as physicalexertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving thesame goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding courseof action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition ofskill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature. "
60 " The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little. "