System 1 vs. System 2

I have been reading a book titled:

"Thinking, Fast and Slow"

By Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel prize in economics. It's mostly a psychology book, and on the surface does not have a lot to do with engineering.

I'm reading it because of Jev, and its clones like OpenAI's Decisions API, and a clamoring herd of others. The creators of Jev describe it as a "System 1 model", but I currently think of it as an "LLM classifier".

So what does "System 1" mean?

That's what the book is about. "System 1" is a form of thinking, and the book contrasts it with a different form called "System 2". These are defined on pages 20-21 of the book:

• System 1 thinking is automatic, quick and decisive, with no mental effort.

• System 2 thinking costs attention. It is effortful mental activity that requires steps of more complex reasoning.

If I ask you "what is 2 + 3", the answer pops right in your mind. Automatically, without effort. That's System 1.

If I ask you "what are the prime factors of 28", then just about everyone reading this will be able to think a moment and tell me the answer. But you'll have to reason it out, in steps. That's System 2.

I find this interesting for several reasons.

One is that it gives us new ways of classifying, uh, classifiers like Jev. And contrasting that kind of thing with broader, reasoning-capable LLMs.

But the other reason I am interested is for teaching.

You see, the trainings in Boosted Code have long leveraged psychology to not just inform, but transform.

Most people think teaching is about transferring information. Nope; that's a tiny part of it. As I see it, the point is to install new abilities. Make you able to do things you could not do before, that are valuable to you and to employers and to the world.

To that end, I ruthlessly weaponize every tool of psychology I can get my claws on.

Some of this is explained in the 'Principles For Teaching' section of the Boosted Code webpage, linked below.

But the bulk is revealed in BC's "Financial Security" track (which might also be called "Thought Leadership Bootcamp"). With some of the more secret pieces only revealed in the live group sessions, from time to time.

That's a hint to those of you in Boosted Code, to pay attention to the weekly live sessions.

As for the rest of y'all:

If you value developing your ability to build, rather than just inhaling information, check it out here: