Kahneman  agrees with Malcom Gladwell ("Blink") that experts in different fields can make good "intuitive" decisions quickly, without even knowing the basis for their decisions.  However, the book is  about all the fallacies quick decisions in general are prone too.  Kahneman talks of system 1 (quick) and system 2 (deliberate) decision making, but uses this as a shorthand; there is very little in the book about neuroscience, it is about psychology as revealed by experiments in psychology.

 Kahneman talks about system 2 being influenced by system 1 and being "lazy".  I think the real point is that it is hard for all of us to get away from heuristics that have developed during human evolution.  For example, I have been trained in Bayesian statistics, and applied them, but still find it easy to fall prey to some of the fallacies discussed.  What is surprising is that it is so easy for psychologists to manipulate system 1 through priming.  System 1 often relies on associative memory, what comes to mind, and this is easily influenced by exposing the subject to different words or images or stories in apparently unrelated contexts.  Even more surprising is that just by changing mood, even if it is by asking the subject to deliberately frown, a subject may be induced to rely more on system 2.  If young children discover they were previously mistaken, they do not recall this but think they have always known the truth (my source is a book by Alice Gopnik); analogously, if adults are asked to assign  probabilities to various alternatives, then find out what really occurred, they recall the odds they assigned to the actual outcome to be higher than they were (on average of course).

 Kahneman writes clearly, and uses a novel way to review each chapter at chapter end.  I would have preferred an abridged version of the book, with perhaps some of the experiments cited omitted.  I did enjoy almost all of Kahneman's personal anecdotes.  However, in his argument with his wife about moving from California to Princeton, in which he employed psychological findings, he conveniently omitted that for seniors climate may impact pain levels.
Kahneman  agrees with Malcom Gladwell ("Blink") that experts in different fields can make good "intuitive" decisions quickly, without even knowing the basis for their decisions. However, the book is  about all the fallacies quick decisions in general are prone too. Kahneman talks of system 1 (quick) and system 2 (deliberate) decision making, but uses this as a shorthand; there is very little in the book about neuroscience, it is about psychology as revealed by experiments in psychology. Kahneman talks about system 2 being influenced by system 1 and being "lazy". I think the real point is that it is hard for all of us to get away from heuristics that have developed during human evolution. For example, I have been trained in Bayesian statistics, and applied them, but still find it easy to fall prey to some of the fallacies discussed. What is surprising is that it is so easy for psychologists to manipulate system 1 through priming. System 1 often relies on associative memory, what comes to mind, and this is easily influenced by exposing the subject to different words or images or stories in apparently unrelated contexts. Even more surprising is that just by changing mood, even if it is by asking the subject to deliberately frown, a subject may be induced to rely more on system 2. If young children discover they were previously mistaken, they do not recall this but think they have always known the truth (my source is a book by Alice Gopnik); analogously, if adults are asked to assign  probabilities to various alternatives, then find out what really occurred, they recall the odds they assigned to the actual outcome to be higher than they were (on average of course). Kahneman writes clearly, and uses a novel way to review each chapter at chapter end. I would have preferred an abridged version of the book, with perhaps some of the experiments cited omitted. I did enjoy almost all of Kahneman's personal anecdotes. However, in his argument with his wife about moving from California to Princeton, in which he employed psychological findings, he conveniently omitted that for seniors climate may impact pain levels.