System 2 Thinking

One way of thinking about this is Daniel Kahneman’s simple model of thinking: System 1 and System 2. System 1 thinking is fast and intuitive. Current AI models’ pattern recognition and next-token prediction are good examples of this. System 2 thinking is slow and analytical, akin to genuine reasoning and understanding. It is System 2 thinking where... See more

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, posits that there are two key cognitive systems that drive our thinking and the way we go about making decisions. The first system (System 1) is instinctual, emotional and fast. Conversely, the second system (System 2), is more strategic and methodical in its worki... See more

System 1 allows us to conserve mental energy when dealing with familiar patterns, and to react efficiently when faced with a situation that demands action rather than thought (you don’t want to be in a methodical frame of mind when deciding how to handle the information that a car is hurtling towards you). Still, most of us identify more closely wi... See more