We're blind to our blindness. We have very little idea of how little we know. We're not designed to know how little we know.
Interpretation
We often underestimate our ignorance and the limits of our understanding.
Daniel Kahneman's quote emphasizes the idea that humans are often unaware of their own lack of knowledge. It suggests that we are, by nature, unable to fully comprehend the extent of our ignorance, leading us to make judgments and decisions based on an incomplete understanding of reality.
In practice
This quote could be used in a philosophy class discussing the nature of knowledge.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
If you hunger for certain types of clothes, for which you have little use, put yourself on a diet. Just as you resist too much whipped cream and French pastry to keep your figure in shape, you can say no to those yearned-for but unneeded purchases that lead to a wardrobe that is shapeless and without form.
The mind always hankers for more and more. If you have money, it hankers for more money; if you have prestige, it hankers for more prestige; if you have knowledge, it hankers for more knowledge. Mind lives in the 'more.'
If you want to obtain the secrets of such wonderful techniques, drill yourself, harden yourself, undergo severe training, abandoned body and mind; follow this course for years and you will naturally reach the profoundest levels. To know if water is hot or cold you must taste it yourself.
Sometimes, success in life is knowing one's limitations.
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
It is very true, that the way you think creates reality for yourself.
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