What’s the biggest division in life? Between clever people and stupid people? Between the good-looking and the ugly?
No. The fundamental difference is between the ones who do things quickly and the ones who do them slowly.
You know that friend who emails you back the moment you email them for a favour? Or the builder who comes round the morning you ring him? These are the modern saints – the hyper-efficient deities who put to shame that other friend who only ever rings when they want something out of you; or the plumber you have to ring three times and only ever rings back to say he isn’t coming after all.
Acting fast and slow is completely different to Thinking, Fast and Slow – the name of the 2011 bestseller by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who died in March. Kahneman cleverly divided the mind into two different kinds of thinking: System 1, which is fast and instinctive; System 2 is slow, meticulous and logical.
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