Optimistic people play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives. Their decisions make a difference; they are inventors, entrepreneurs, political and military leaders - not average people. They got to where they are by seeking challenges and taking risks.

People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory—and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in the media. Frequently mentioned topics populate the mind even as others slip away from awareness. In turn, what the media choose to report corresponds to their view of what is currently on the public’s mind. It is no accident that authoritarian regimes exert substantial pressure on independent media. Because public interest is most easily aroused by dramatic events and by celebrities, media feeding frenzies are common

The planning fallacy is that you make a plan, which is usually a best-case scenario. Then you assume that the outcome will follow your plan, even when you should know better.

Most of the time, we think fast. And most of the time we're really expert at what we're doing, and most of the time, what we do is right.

you know you have made a theoretical advance when you can no longer reconstruct why you failed for so long to see the obvious.

Our memory tells us stories, that is, what we get to keep from our experiences is a story.

The effort invested in 'getting it right' should be commensurate with the importance of the decision.