I was delighted when my beloved brought home a copy of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, which she is using in her current research.[1] I was distraught as soon as I come across the first paragraph of his Introduction, though. “Questioning what we believe and want is difficult at the best of times,” he argues, “and especially difficult when we most need to do it, but we can benefit from the informed opinions of others.”[2] In spite of my long-term affection, the winner of the 2002 Nobel prize in economics unexpectedly grated: “Others, what others?” Questioning what we believe and want is surely our own affair. Others come way behind in our quest. Only then I remembered his life-long partner in groundbreaking research, Amos Tversky, to the memory of whom the book is dedicated. “Granted,” I sighed and put the book down. I am certain to pick it up again sooner or later.

Footnotes

1. New York, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011.

2. Op. cit., p. 3.