Chapter 9*

I thought it was really interesting to read about the different ways of thinking and what effects our personal opinions can have on our "search" for answers.

One type of thinking is called availability heuristic. This operates when we base our judgments on how mentally available information is. This means that when faced with a problem, our search for the answer comes from how easily the answer comes to our minds and the amount of effort it takes. Basically this means that if we have a question and the answer pops into your head right away, that's the answer you go with. This can be bad because just because you think it's right because it was able to come into your head so quickly, doesn't mean that it is.

A second type of thinking is called confirmation bias. This is a tendency to search for information that confirms your own perspectives. This can be bad because as we know, everyone's perspectives don't always have the same meaning. An example of this is trying to find the pattern in a set of numbers such as (2-4-6-8). Any person would say the pattern is that the numbers are increasing by 2 each time. Although that is also right, it's not the exact pattern. The answer really is: Any set of increasing numbers. We all thought it was right because our own perspective tells us what we think that answer is, and the facts agree, so our answer must be right.. Right? Wrong.

One last thing that I found interesting was the different types of "mind sets" that people have. For example fixation is an inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. This happens when you incorrectly solve a problem, and are then faced with a struggle of how to reapproach it. This can make it hard to see things "outside of the box."

Another example would be overconfidence. This is a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments. Overconfidence can be both a good and bad thing. A good example of this that I read from the book is when a person has stocks and decides to sell them before the market gets bad or the business crashes, and a stock broker decides that it is a good time to buy the stocks because they are cheap and the future of the company looks promising. Both people are confident in their decisions, but only one person can be right. Overconfidence can lead you down the wrong path from making too many dangerous or "in the moment" decisions, but it is common that people who are overconfident are more successful, confident, and making difficult decisions is easier for them.