21A Reading Reflection No.2

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

I consider the general theme of this book to be the "two systems" of thinking that Kahneman discusses. The first system of thinking (fast thinking) is quick and automatic, used of decision making based on personal experiences and biases. It is pretty much involuntary low effort in terms of operation. System two (slow thinking) focuses on analyzing complicated situations and  creating conclusions. It is much more voluntary and time consuming than system one. These systems are the main focus of the whole book, and Kahneman explores conditions and modes of thinking in the context of these two themes.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I think one of the most essential elements of entrepreneurship is trying to get into the customer's head. I think this book is so applicable to entrepreneurship because it gives us concrete ways to think about what the customer is thinking and the language to discuss it. Depending on your company, you need to know which system of though (one or two) you're appealing to. You need to understand the customer's rationality (or lack thereof) and how feel about the decisions they make. In this class, we have focused on the consumer in many exercises. I think this book really just provides insight into how people think, which in turn describes how your customers think.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

The exercise for this book would be related to the exercises we have done where we discussed buyer behavior. I think it would be a "No. 2" to the "Create a Customer Avatar" exercise where we focus on how our particular customer would think about our product/service. The exercise would be to use the previous consumer avatar and our knowledge of thinking from the book Thinking, Fast, and Slow to analyze your prototypical sutler's thought process. What are their implicit biases? How confident are they in decision-making? Do you consider them an optimist? Questions to reflect on would include: Would your product tap more into system one or two of thinking and why? Does your product/service capitalize on customer irrationality? How does understanding modes of thinking help you as an entrepreneur? 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I think that after learning what system on entailed, I was surprised to consider that the goal of system one is to constantly update and maintain your "normal". It uses your experiences and their outcomes to form a model of your world, and to determine what is normal. I don't think this information itself was necessarily ground-breaking to me, but the "aha" moment came from me never really considering myself to think like this, and realizing that Kahneman perfectly describes our inner perceptions. Every decision that we make is influenced by our experience with the outcomes of previous decisions. This system of intuitive bias is how we form quick conclusions and how we plan our future. I've always enjoyed thinking about thinking, and this book was so insightful and well-explained by Kahneman.