You know, the effort invested in believing a comforting story… it’s something I see every single day. It’s so much easier for our brains to grab onto a simple, reassuring narrative than to sit with the messy, uncomfortable truth of not knowing. Kahneman nailed it because this is the fundamental tension between how we *want* to think and how we *should* think.
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Meaning
At its core, this quote means our minds are hardwired to take the path of least resistance. And that path is almost always a good story that makes us feel safe and certain, rather than the cognitively demanding work of accepting that we just don’t know.
Explanation
Let me break this down. Your brain has two systems – the fast, intuitive one (System 1) and the slow, analytical one (System 2). Believing a comforting story? That’s a System 1 specialty. It’s automatic, it feels good, it requires almost no energy. Accepting uncertainty, on the other hand, forces System 2 to kick in. That’s the part that has to hold conflicting ideas, weigh evidence, and tolerate that gnawing feeling of ambiguity. And System 2 is lazy; it doesn’t like to work if it doesn’t have to. So we end up outsourcing our thinking to a simpler, more comforting narrative, even if it’s wrong. It’s a mental energy saver, but the long-term cost can be huge.
Quote Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Original Language | English (3668) |
| Category | Personal Development (697) |
| Topics | belief (103), comfort (14), uncertainty (21) |
| Literary Style | poetic (635) |
| Emotion / Mood | somber (55) |
| Overall Quote Score | 83 (302) |
Origin & Factcheck
This insight comes straight from Daniel Kahneman’s 2011 masterpiece, “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” It was published in the United States and it’s a synthesis of his lifetime of research, for which he won a Nobel Prize. You sometimes see similar sentiments floating around, but this specific phrasing is uniquely Kahneman’s – it’s the bedrock of his work on cognitive ease and narrative fallacies.
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 (3668) |
| 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 | The effort invested in believing a comforting story is less than the effort of accepting uncertainty |
| 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 198 (2013 edition) |