Thinking, Fast and Slow

There is a battle going on inside your mind.

And it’s all about thinking fast and slow.

If you have read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, you will know the two modes of thought: System 1 and System 2.

System 1 is fast, automatic, emotional, and intuitive, the mental autopilot we rely on for everyday judgments.

System 2, by contrast, is slow, deliberate, effortful, and logical, the part of the mind we invoke when solving a business problem with data, or making a complex decision.

When I think about this, as a career-long finance leader, my instinct is to say that I was entirely a System 2 thinker.

But see, I just caught myself out, because “instinct” is a System 1 thought.

In fact, and this scares me a little, if I think about it deeply I would say that my entire career spent at the very heartbeat of data, analysis, logic, was in fact wholly run on a System 1 thought bias.

I just wasn’t aware of it at the time (another System 1 pattern!).

And here is the eureka moment.

Because it is only through awareness of your System 1 and System 2 thinking that you can honour their differences, assess them both carefully, and elevate your own thinking patterns and output.

Imagine you’re in a strategy meeting. The team debates a major decision, ie whether to launch a risky new product. Each member presents what sounds like a rational argument, market data, forecasts, ROI.

But beneath those slides, what is really happening is that System 1 narratives (fear of failure, excitement about novelty, personal pride, or aversion to loss) are steering the discussion. System 2 then arrives late, crafting logical-sounding justifications for decisions that emotion already made.

We’ve reversed engineered a System 2 logic to fit a System 1 narrative. In fact, extrapolating this, you could argue that that much of business life is run by System 1.

Amazing, right?

We all have System 1 and System 2 thinking.

We can all think fast and slow.

The magic happens where we learn to recognize which voice in you is speaking, and then design habits that let the wiser one take the priority when it matters.