We are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that we often deny the randomness of life and instead ascribe meaning to events.
Daniel Kahneman emphasizes our tendency to overlook the random nature of life, which can lead us to believe that events have a predictable pattern or purpose. By rejecting the idea that much of what we experience is due to chance, we may misunderstand the complexity and uncertainty inherent in human existence. This perspective challenges us to reflect on how we interpret experiences and the inherent randomness of the world around us.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing uncertainty and unpredictability in our lives.
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.
Good or bad people can be democratically elected, but it is always easy to fight for human rights under this system.
Naturally, since [the Sumerians] didn't know what caused the flood anymore than we do, they blamed the gods. (That's the advantage of religion. You're never short an explanation for anything.)
The Soviet system of propaganda and censorship existed not so much for the purpose of spreading a particular message as for the purpose of making learning impossible, replacing facts with mush, and handing the faceless state a monopoly on defining an ever-shifting reality.
After chiding the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.
Every phenomenon on earth is symbolic, and each symbol is an open gate through which the soul, if it is ready, can enter into the inner part of the world, where you and I and day and night are all one.
All spiritual practices are illusions created by illusionists to escape illusion.
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