The Two Selves: The Experiencing Self vs. The Remembering Self
There are two types of Self according to Kahneman:
1 .Experiencing Self: The experiencing self is the “you” in the moment who lives through the event.
2. Remembering Self: The remembering self is the “you” that writes the history. It is also the remembering self that is consulted when planning the future.
What Kanhaman found is that how we experience events, and how remember events aren’t always equal!
For example, experiencing a two week vacation is amazing for the experiencing self, but often a 1 or 2 week vacation doesn’t make much of a difference for your remembering self. After the experience has ended, your mind just labels the experience as, “I went on vacation”.
Two rules that govern the remembering self’s record of an experience are:
- Duration does not count.
- Only the peak (best or worst moment) and the end of the experience are registered.
Daniel Kahneman Videos
Bibliography:
Title: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Daniel Kahneman
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (April 2, 2013)
Buy Thinking Fast and Slow on Amazon
Listen to Thinking Fast and Slow on Audible (free trial)
