• Author: Daniel Kahneman
  • Date: 2011
  • Publisher: Penguin
  • ISBN: 978-0-141-03357-0

Overview: Looks at human psychology involved in thought and decision making. He uses the metaphor of two systems, one which uses heuristics to make fast decisions and the other which processes the evidence. Fast decision making is necessary for survival but can be wrong, slow thinking is hard work so we have a tendency to avoid it. Looks at heuristics and biases, confidence, and choices. 

Relevance: Widely cited as one of the key thinkers responsible for the challenge to the idea of people as rational decision makers which is at the heart of liberal economics.

One of the ideas I pick up as a way of fixing representative democracy involves widening the participation in all forms of decision making on the basis that a facilitated collective is more likely to get a decision right and mitigate risks. This book clearly shows that individual expertise does not provide reliable protection from bias and mistakes.