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Bl4nkface t1_j4v5bdu wrote

Reply to comment by 1bunch in Steven Pinker on the power of irrationality | Choosing ignorance, incapacity, or irrationality can at times be the most rational thing to do. by IAI_Admin

That's the argument of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking fast and slow.

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tyco_brahe t1_j4vza5j wrote

That's what I thought too. System 1 is dumb, System 2 is lazy. Take your pick!

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TheNotSoGreatPumpkin t1_j4wktsk wrote

My takeaway was it’s not really system two being lazy, it’s the whole brain trying to economize. System two is metabolically way more expensive than system one.

He admits in the book that the two systems don’t really exist independently of each other, but it’s a useful conceptual model for better understanding how our brains operate.

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tyco_brahe t1_j4x8oso wrote

Necessity is the Mother of invention. Laziness is the Father.

I don't view "lazy" as a pejorative when describing system 2. To me, it means that it's efficient... it won't be engaged unless is has to, because it's expensive (metabolically).

Mostly I was just making a joke about 'lazy' system 2.

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1bunch t1_j4wc41q wrote

Kahneman was inspired by Stanovich:

>”Among the pioneers [of my field] are.. Keith Stanovich, and Richard West. I borrow the terms System 1 and System 2 from early writings of Stanovich and West that greatly influenced my thinking..” > >—‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ p. 450

He made sure to give Stanovich credit in his public talks too. just off the top I think there was a GoogleTalk Q&A when someone asked Kahneman if “the 2 systems are literal systems that map onto the brain,” and he said something like “no, and to make it even worse, the idea wasn’t even my idea, it was Stanovich’s. I just tweaked his metaphor by making it into an image of ‘2 entities inside you’, but they don’t exist! For some reason I thought it would just be easier to grasp these abstract metaphors about cognitive processes if we imagined these processes as 2 quasi-entities in ourselves”

Kahneman often makes himself seem like a mess in his public q&A’s but he’s just hilariously self-deprecating, he’s quite intelligent and accomplished lol 😆

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aspartame_junky t1_j4we484 wrote

An essential aspect of academia that I miss (having moved to industry) is the value of giving credit where due.

Yes, there are credit usurpers in academia too, but as a disciple, academia generally values citing your sources and giving credit where due, rather than taking credit for others' work (e.g., Elon)

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VoraciousTrees t1_j4wd27y wrote

Pair that book with "The Righteous Mind", which deals with morality as a framework for the "fast" system.

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