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.
You proceed from a false assumption: I have no ego to bruise.
When you recognize this, you also realize that you are now free to give up this futile conflict, this inner state of war.
The end of all knowledge should be service to others.
Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.
To be credible we must be truthful.
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
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