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Why you think you couldn't realize which ones are at play now in your brain? Humans generally are capable of this "reality check" (fancy word: metacognition). Not saying it's easy, but from readings on the topic, and my experience, it's possible, isn't it?



Kahneman writes that biases are mostly caused by slow brain and old system such as amygdala which are before the slow brain, and it's extremely hard for the slow modern brain to control the fast one and override its signals. It's like biases are in BIOS not in an executing program.

It's possible to feel that my current thinking is not perfectly rational and not emotionally detached. But even when having that feeling I cannot just pick e.g. "I'm having biases 1, 7, 14 and 19 from the list and I have to do that and that to overcome them...". Better to go to sleep, run 10K, go to a bar, etc. when there are hints that the brain in a state that is not perfect for decision making. Somehow in the background the rational analysis never ends, and when one reaches a clear, calm, and emotionally detached state of mind the best decision is usually already obvious.


In the early part of his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Kahneman essentially says the book will help one identify the biases in other people but we're somewhat helpless to see them within ourselves.

For anyone who hasn't read this book, it's worthwhile if only to humble oneself into realizing we're rarely as rational as we'd like to think.


It's "hard" as I wrote, but it's possible. You actually do it yourself on a daily basis, every time you don't act purely on your "animal brain" instincts but override them with your "human brain". This is almost the same.


There is a catch that the system that you use to override a biased system is also biased, or even catch-22 - because it's the same system.


You can compensate for these biases, but noticing them in the act is different.

Familiarity means you will notice some containers in the store before others. At that point bias has already occurred before conscious thought.




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