My interest in well-being evolved from my interest in decision making - from raising the question of whether people know what they will want in the future and whether the things that people want for themselves will make them happy.
— Daniel Kahneman
It's not a case of: 'Read this book and then you'll think differently. I've written this book, and I don't think differently.
We're generally overconfident in our opinions and our impressions and judgments.
The effort invested in 'getting it right' should be commensurate with the importance of the decision.
We have a very narrow view of what is going on.
It's clear that policymakers and economists are going to be interested in the measurement of well-being primarily as it correlates with health; they also want to know whether researchers can validate subjective responses with physiological indices.
When you analyze happiness, it turns out that the way you spend your time is extremely important.
Slow thinking has the feeling of something you do. It's deliberate.
If there is time to reflect, slowing down is likely to be a good idea.
You're surprised by something, but you don't really know what surprised you; you recognize someone, but you don't really know what cues cause you to recognize that person.
The idea that you can ask one question and it makes the point - well, that wasn't how psychology was done at the time.
There are domains in which expertise is not possible. Stock picking is a good example. And in long-term political strategic forecasting, it's been shown that experts are just not better than a dice-throwing monkey.
Experienced happiness refers to your feelings, to how happy you are as you live your life. In contrast, the satisfaction of the remembering self refers to your feelings when you think about your life.
We don't see very far in the future, we are very focused on one idea at a time, one problem at a time, and all these are incompatible with rationality as economic theory assumes it.
