Daniel Kahneman is winner of the Nobel Prize in economics for his integration of economic science with the psychology of human behavior, judgment and decision-making. He is the author of the popular book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” that summarizes in an accessible way his research of several decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky, on cognitive biases, prospect theory, and happiness. The central thesis of this work is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: “System 1” is fast, instinctive and emotional; “System 2” is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The book delineates cognitive biases associated with each type of thinking.

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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction

02:36 – Lessons about human behavior from WWII

08:19 – System 1 and system 2: thinking fast and slow

15:17 – Deep learning

30:01 – How hard is autonomous driving?

35:59 – Explainability in AI and humans

40:08 – Experiencing self and the remembering self

51:58 – Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

54:46 – How much of human behavior can we study in the lab?

57:57 – Collaboration

1:01:09 – Replication crisis in psychology

1:09:28 – Disagreements and controversies in psychology

1:13:01 – Test for AGI

1:16:17 – Meaning of life