People Who Make A Difference Do Not Die Alone

“People who make a difference do not die alone. Something dies in everyone who was affected by them.” — Daniel Kahneman

“People who make a difference do not die alone. Something dies in everyone who was affected by them.”

— Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman died yesterday. At the age of 90.

His life was a giant of a life. He integrated human judgment into decision-making, exposed us to our ignorance, and officiated the marriage of economics and psychology. Daniel Kahneman insists that we are less knowledgeable than we think. He said we overestimate our intelligence. For this humble scholar, humans are not as wise as they claim. As though to prove it, even without doing so, there were times when Daniel, the Nobel Prize winner, the Professor, was asked difficult questions in

the middle of interviews, and he responded by saying, "I don't know."

"I am not sure," "I will see about it later." Humility found a home in Daniel Kahneman, and it found expression in all he did.

If one were to listen to some of these interviews, you would not know he has won the Nobel Prize, you would not know he was a Professor from the 1970s, you would not know he has won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the so many awards he has received through his long life. 90 years! That's more than most people!

His career took him from Tel Aviv to the US, and every time, his brilliance and gentle approach to problems made him stand out amongst equals.

I once read something that says most people who begin Daniel Kahneman's book, Thinking Fast and Slow, never finish it. To be fair, it is a big book with so much knowledge on each page. On the other hand, I suspect that most people don’t finish it because they cannot stay through a book that exposes us to what we are: frauds, irrational, greedy, and unthinking species that struggle with every day. Who amongst us can withstand a doctor who diagnoses us without mercy? The emperor has no clothes. Unfortunately, you are the emperor. I am the emperor.

What are we to do? We can run away from the insights of Daniel Kahneman. We can attempt to hide away from the truth he shows us about ourselves or fall down like the fallen mortals we are. It is this Doctor who has something that could help us. His first cure for us lies in the two systems that he explored.

System 1 - Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious.

System 2 - Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious.

System 1 has ruined many a man. System 2 can redeem us.

Daniel is gone. But he has left something behind. He has left something in each of us that has learned from him. If you haven’t learned from him, it is your loss. These words, his words, will ring for the ages;

“People who make a difference do not die alone. Something dies in everyone who was affected by them.”

— Daniel Kahneman

Rest in peace, Prof. Daniel Kahneman! The man who taught us how to think right.

This is a photo of him and his friend, Richard Thaler. It is a befitting way to remember the old sage, always curious and eager to learn.