Gözde Yeşiltaş's Key Ideas from Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman

Jumping to Conclusions – We make snap judgments on little information.

How Judgments Happen – Quick feelings shape our decisions more than we realize.

Answering an Easier Question – We often swap hard questions with easier ones without noticing.

Mental Shortcuts and Mistakes

🎲 Your brain uses shortcuts to save time—but they often lead to bad decisions.

💡 Key Idea:

These shortcuts, called heuristics, help us think fast, but they can mislead us. We trust small samples, remember dramatic events too much, and use stereotypes even when they’re wrong.

Small Numbers & Anchors – We over-trust small samples and let random numbers influence our choices.

Availability – If something is easy to recall, we think it’s more common or important than it is.

Stereotypes & Logic Errors – We judge based on appearances, not facts, and fall into logical traps.

Overconfidence

📈 We think we know more than we actually do.

💡 Key Idea:

We believe in our own predictions and explanations too much. We rewrite the past to make it seem like it was obvious, and we trust expert opinions—even when they’re wrong.

Hindsight & Stories – We think events were predictable after they happen and create simple stories that ignore randomness.

Experts & Planning Fallacy – Experts often get it wrong. We also underestimate how long things will take or how hard they’ll be.

How We Choose

💡 The way choices are presented affects what we pick—even when the facts stay the same.

💡 Key Idea:

We don’t make decisions logically. We avoid losses more than we enjoy gains. And how a problem is framed (positive vs. negative) changes our choice.

Prospect Theory & Loss Aversion – Losses hurt more than gains feel good.

Framing Effects – Changing the wording of the same choice changes how we feel about it.

Living vs. Remembering

🕰️ You are two selves: one lives life, the other remembers it.

💡 Key Idea:

We experience life moment by moment, but our memory only keeps certain parts. The remembering self shapes how we judge our lives and make future choices—even if the memories aren’t accurate.

Experiencing vs. Remembering – One part of you feels the moment; another part writes your life story. That second part makes most of your decisions.

Final Thoughts

🌿 Knowing your brain’s tricks doesn’t stop them—but awareness helps.

💡 Key Idea:

Even when you learn about these mental errors, they still happen. But being aware of them helps you think more clearly and make better choices.

Your mind is fast and brilliant—but it’s also biased, lazy, and easily fooled. This book helps you spot the traps so you can think better.