Steve Barker

This book looked promising from its title and the fact its been a best seller. I can only think millions of others were mislead like I was into buying it based on that premise. Or maybe they have never read a book on psychology before by a decent author. This book is poorly written, repetitive and boring. Also its doesnt actually reveal anything new that I havent already read in far better books that came before it and that did so in a quarter of the space. Ive also been told that it contains inaccurate and fallacious theories and that some of his experiments and results couldnt even be confirmed by other experimenters. Its format seems disjointed as well, some chapters dont have enough detail with no summary or conclusions, wheras most have too much which seems a lot of irrelevant details so by the time you get to the end ypu are so bored you dont care what its trying to say. I would recommend reading Oliver Sacks books or Daniel Dennett if you want to learn something interesting and useful. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is also a good read. The only thing i took away from Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow is that if you make someone think of a happy time before asking them for something you want, they will be more likely to give it you. The repetitiveness is in the many dullard questions like whether you would rather receive $900 for sure or $1000 with an 90% chance of losing. I bet his test subjects were also bored out their minds during his experiments too. I dont often abandon a book but I had to in this case. I am taking it to the charity shop but i have pencilled "Abandon hope all ye who enter here!" in the fly leaf as a warning to potential buyers!