We're blind to our blindness. We have very little idea of how little we know. We're not designed to know how little we know.
Interpretation
We often underestimate our ignorance and the limits of our understanding.
Daniel Kahneman's quote emphasizes the idea that humans are often unaware of their own lack of knowledge. It suggests that we are, by nature, unable to fully comprehend the extent of our ignorance, leading us to make judgments and decisions based on an incomplete understanding of reality.
In practice
This quote could be used in a philosophy class discussing the nature of knowledge.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.
Take stock of your fears now and see how many of them are senseless. If you are honest with yourself you will probably find most of them are groundless.
Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.
We say, sorrow, disaster, calamity. God says, chastening and it sounds sweet to him though it is a discord to our ears. Don't faint when you are rebuked, and don't despise the chastening of the Lord. In your patience possess your souls.
Our power is in our ability to decide.
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
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