Quotation
Last reviewed:
“It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not its completeness. Indeed, you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent pattern.”
Daniel Kahneman · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · 2011
What does it mean?
A good story, in this technical sense, is a consistent one, and consistency is easier when you know less. The mainstream reading is a warning: the pleasure of a pattern is not evidence that the pattern used enough of the world. A competing reading admires the thin story as elegant and stops, which is the mistake the chapter describes. He says you will often find that knowing little helps the fit. The sentences are chapter 7, with WYSIATI. Completeness is the standard he says the mind does not use. Coherence is the standard it does.
Did Daniel Kahneman really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. His English. Page 87 of the 2011 Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition. Other printings can move the page. The chapter title is the stable citation.
Where it comes from
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), chapter 7, A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions, p. 87
Approximate date: 2011.
How to use it
Two accounts of a delay on a ward in Edinburgh, one detailed and messy, one short and smooth. The smooth one will feel truer. He thinks that feeling is the chapter. Ask which facts the smooth one had to leave out before you prefer it.
A mindset reading
Elegance is a property of the story you could tell. It is not a property of the situation until the missing parts are allowed to count.
Understand the philosophy
Still chapter 7, page 87 in the 2011 edition cited here. The key contrast is consistency and completeness. WYSIATI is the name of the habit. Chapter 20 then says confidence tracks that coherence. The planning fallacy, chapter 23, is what happens when the smooth story is a forecast.
- mind
- knowledge
FAQ
What does it mean?
A good story, in this technical sense, is a consistent one, and consistency is easier when you know less. The mainstream reading is a warning: the pleasure of a pattern is not evidence that the pattern used enough of the world. A competing reading admires the thin story as elegant and stops, which is the mistake the chapter describes. He says you will often find that knowing little helps the fit. The sentences are chapter 7, with WYSIATI. Completeness is the standard he says the mind does not use. Coherence is the standard it does.
Did Daniel Kahneman really say this?
Well attested. His English. Page 87 of the 2011 Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition. Other printings can move the page. The chapter title is the stable citation.
Which work is it in?
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), chapter 7, A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions, p. 87 Approximate date: 2011.