The Enduring Legacy of Daniel Kahneman

On expanding disciplines

Daniel Kahneman passed away recently. He left an indelible mark on various fields through his groundbreaking research and insights into human decision-making and behavior.

These are some Kahneman quotes we found interesting:

• "Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it."

• "A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact."

• "Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance."

• "If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do."

• "Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed."

• "The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained."

• "Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me."

• "We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events."