Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense… it’s a powerful idea, right? It’s the reason we feel so sure of our decisions, our beliefs, our path. But Kahneman is pointing out the dark secret behind that confidence: our incredible talent for ignoring everything we don’t know. We’re not rational beings; we’re storytelling beings who crave a coherent narrative, even if we have to fill in the gaps with pure fiction.
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Meaning
The quote means our sense of a logical, predictable world isn’t based on actual understanding, but on our brain’s ability to selectively overlook its own massive ignorance.
Explanation
Let me break this down. We walk through life with this illusion of understanding. We think we know why a project succeeded, why a stock crashed, why a relationship failed. But here’s the kicker: that feeling of “knowing” is often a post-hoc story our brain creates to make sense of chaos. It’s a cognitive shortcut. Our minds are built for efficiency, not accuracy. So instead of wrestling with the vast, terrifying complexity of reality, we just… ignore the bits that don’t fit. We smooth over the cracks in our knowledge with confidence. It’s not malicious; it’s just how we’re wired to get through the day without being paralyzed by uncertainty.
Quote Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Original Language | English (3669) |
| Category | Wisdom (385) |
| Topics | ignorance (10), illusion (22), understanding (119) |
| Literary Style | poetic (635) |
| Emotion / Mood | reflective (382) |
| Overall Quote Score | 86 (262) |
Origin & Factcheck
This is straight from Daniel Kahneman’s 2011 magnum opus, “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” It came out of his decades of Nobel-prize winning research in behavioral economics and psychology, primarily conducted in the US and Israel. You sometimes see similar sentiments misattributed to other thinkers, but this specific, elegant phrasing is uniquely Kahneman’s.
Attribution Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Author | Daniel Kahneman (54) |
| Source Type | Book (4032) |
| Source/Book Name | Thinking, Fast and Slow (54) |
| Origin Timeperiod | 21st Century (1892) |
| Original Language | English (3669) |
| Authenticity | Verified (4032) |
Author Bio
Dr Daniel Kahneman transformed how we think about thinking. Trained in Israel and at UC Berkeley, he built a career spanning Hebrew University, UBC, UC Berkeley, and Princeton. His partnership with Amos Tversky produced prospect theory and the heuristics-and-biases program, culminating in the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He engaged broad audiences through bestselling books and practical frameworks for better decisions. He continued writing and advising late into life, leaving ideas that shape economics, policy, medicine, and management. If you want to dive deeper, start with the Dr Daniel Kahneman book list and explore his enduring insights.
| Official Website
Where is this quotation located?
| Quotation | Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance |
| Book Details | Publication Year: 2011; ISBN: 9780374275631; Latest Edition: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013; Number of pages: 499. |
| Where is it? | Part III: Overconfidence, Chapter 20: The Illusion of Understanding, Approximate page 199 (2013 edition) |