“He suggested a new definition of the nerd: a person who knows his own mind well enough to mistrust it.”
Lewis explores the collaborative works of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky on behavioral economics and how it applies to our thinking. Lewis quotes the psychologists' concepts to unravel their relationship and decipher their philosophies on human thinking. They suggest that humans are unable to comprehend their motivations because of cognitive biases or illusions from external forces. Lewis extends Tversky’s definition of the nerd as an individual who is self-aware of these dissonances and has the resolution to doubt their mind. The psychologists and their adherents study heuristics to delve deeper into the workings of the human mind and nurture skepticism as a prerequisite.
“Man is a deterministic device thrown into a probabilistic universe. In this match, surprises are expected.”
Lewis further explores the idea that people assume themselves to be logical in their decisions without even understanding their motivations. Our judgments come down to our emotional faculties and cognitive dissonances before any rational conclusions. Human minds are wired a specific way and the psychologists studied the animal instincts of people rather than their ideas to understand the behaviors. Consequently, determining that the mind is largely manipulated by external factors and decisions waver as per them. The mind obsessively takes hold of an ideology to make sense of its environment hence it is probably illogical because the universe is more fortuitous.
“The big choices we make are practically random. The small choices probably tell us more about who we are.”
It is habitual that people do indeed believe they have power over their actions and decisions and that it emanates from a place of logic. However, the book focuses on behavioral studies that affirm people do not understand their motivations as much as they think. Through studying heuristics, Amos suggested that our motivations can be understood by observing our choices and decisions. Moreover, not only the big choices that are usually mistaken for defining who were are but rather the trivial ones. In order to critique and moderate our judgments the small choices that people make hold the answers to our motivations.
