Daniel Kahneman: Algorithms Make Better Decisions Than You

The Knowledge Project

Shane Parrish

Business, Society & Culture, Technology, Education, Self-improvement, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize for proving we're not as rational as we think. In this timeless conversation we discuss how to think clearly in a world full of noise, the invisible forces that cloud our judgement, and why more information doesn't equal better thinking. Kahneman also reveals the mental model he discovered at 22 that still guides elite teams today. Approximate timestamps: (00:36) – Episode Introduction (05:37) – Daniel Kahneman on Childhood and Early Psychology (12:44) – Influences and Career Path (15:32) – Working with Amos Tversky (17:20) – Happiness vs. Life Satisfaction (21:04) – Changing Behavior: Myths and Realities (24:38) – Psychological Forces Behind Behavior (28:02) – Understanding Motivation and Situational Forces (30:45) – Situational Awareness and Clear Thinking (34:11) – Intuition, Judgment, and Algorithms (39:33) – Improving Decision-Making with Structured Processes (43:26) – Organizational Thinking and Dissent (46:00) – Judgment Quality and Biases (50:12) – Teaching Negotiation Through Understanding (52:14) – Procedures That Elevate Group Thinking (55:30) – Recording and Reviewing Decisions (57:58) – The Concept of Noise in Decision-Making (01:01:14) – Reducing Noise and Improving Accuracy (01:04:09) – Replication Crisis and Changing Beliefs (01:08:21) – Why Psychologists Overestimate Their Hypotheses (01:12:20) – Closing Thoughts and Gratitude Thanks to MINT MOBILE for sponsoring this episode: Get this new customer offer and your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at MINTMOBILE.com/KNOWLEDGEPROJECT. Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Watch on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tkppodcast Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Delay your intuition.
0:03.0	Don't try to form an intuition quickly, which is what we normally do.
0:08.0	Focus on the separate points.
0:10.0	And then when you have the whole profile, then you can have an intuition and it's going to be better.
0:20.0	Welcome to the Knowledge Project. I'm your host, Shane Parrish. In a world where knowledge is power,
0:26.2	this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.
0:30.4	So you can use their insights in your life.
0:36.5	Before we get into the interview, I want to tell you about a moment that didn't make it into the episode.
0:43.5	I first came across Daniel Common's work in the early 2000s. His impact on me and so many people
0:49.4	around the globe has been unbelievable. By the time I sat down with him in his New York City home in 2019, I had
0:56.2	so many questions for him. Condon won a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002, yet he never
1:03.1	took an economics course. His central message was very simple. If we want to make better decisions,
1:08.8	we need help. Danny died last year on March 27th,
1:12.5	2024. He was 90. This conversation is now one of the final opportunities to hear directly
1:18.5	from one of the most influential thinkers of our time. I get messages about this episode every
1:25.0	week. People come away with new insights on everything from life to
1:29.3	decision making. I re-listened to it recently, and it's timeless. That's exactly why I'm republishing
1:35.8	it. Consider loss aversion, one of his most important discoveries. Why does losing $100 hurt
1:42.0	twice as much as gaining $100 feels good?
1:45.0	The asymmetry affects everything.
1:48.0	It affects your stock portfolio, your golf game, check your portfolio when it's down, and you'll
1:52.5	start making emotional decisions.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Shane Parrish, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Shane Parrish and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.