# Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Widely recommended for changing how you think about decisions and biases; critics say many of its studies, especially on priming, have failed to replicate.

## Why people recommend it

- Changes how readers think about decisions (3 comments): "This is why my favorite book is Thinking, Fast & Slow. It blew my mind and totally made me think about almost everything differently." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48733609)) "That was one of the biggest influences for starting to write my decisions down and then building this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47667320)) "Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman is a fantastic way of getting into how much more complex the mechanism is." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46305339))
- Explains fast and slow thinking (3 comments): "Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman is a fantastic way of getting into how much more complex the mechanism is." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46305339)) "that explains cognitive systems, 1 is subconscious and fast and the other is conscious and slow" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48790551)) "I'm a real fan of Kahneman's "thinking fast" and "thinking slow" paradigm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46019353))
- Explains why brain makes thinking errors (3 comments): "Learn why your brain constantly tricks you and how to avoid costly thinking errors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48485595)) "he wrote a digest of what he touched on during his career, which was also thought-provoking for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46273175)) "someone like Daniel Kahneman can be a good read if you are interested" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617054))
- Praised as a must-read classic (2 comments): "please check out the amazing book Thinking, Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47667186)) "I have heard some good things about the book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50327027))

## What people warn about

- Priming studies failed to replicate (5 comments): "The content on "priming" (significant pillar of the book) has collapsed as part of the reproducibility crisis in psychology." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734092)) "a lot of the studies he cited in Thinking Fast and Slow, especially the ones about priming, have failed to replicate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46320182)) "the underpowered studies cited in Thinking Fast and Slow didn't replicate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46253283))
- Flawed statistics and cherry-picked data (5 comments): "A lot of the arguments in this book are built in a delicate set of assumptions that are supported by equally ridiculous and contrived experiments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49791542)) "it uses some cherry picked data to set up a straw man to rationalize his idea of how the mind works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49789885)) "Kahneman book and work has been discredited, due to the bad statistical methods" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50120942))
- Dull and heavy on autobiography (2 comments): "It's like a collection of the obvious, the wrong, and autobiography of someone you haven't otherwise heard of." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50120049)) "Just an incredibly dull book to read." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157054))
- Challenges System 1 and 2 model (2 comments): "it kind of dismantles the whole idea of System 1 and 2, which then I guess would question the theoretical foundations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475878)) "Kahnemans book is considered outdated by modern neuroscience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47844064))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/g-del-escher-bach.md): 47 recommend
- [Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-in-systems.md): 17 recommend
- [The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins](https://hackerapproved.com/p/selfish-gene.md): 14 recommend
- [Cosmos by Carl Sagan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmos.md): 13 recommend
- [A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith](https://hackerapproved.com/p/a-city-on-mars.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739357980?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780739357989) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman", https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-fast-and-slow/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).