Gary Klein Character Analysis in Thinking, Fast and Slow

A psychologist and colleague of Kahneman’s who did not agree with his work on experts. Klein took the view that experienced professionals develop accurate intuitive skills—a view that was informed by his work with firefighters—in contrast with Kahneman’s view that experts were often overconfident in their abilities, which were in reality based mostly on luck. They published a joint paper asserting that there are different kinds of experts, and one can discern which types of experts have truly acquired the expertise they claim to have.

Gary Klein Character Timeline in Thinking, Fast and Slow

The timeline below shows where the character Gary Klein appears in Thinking, Fast and Slow. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Intuition, Deliberation, and Laziness Theme Icon

Human Fallibility and Overconfidence Theme Icon

Kahneman next writes about his collaboration with Gary Klein, a colleague who did not agree with his work on experts and was deeply skeptical... (full context)

...was formed by observing the illusion of validity with his own work and Meehl’s work. Klein’s views were shaped by his work studying firefighting teams. The commanders could draw on patterns... (full context)

Klein calls this the recognition-primed decision (RPD) model, which also applies to experience in other domains... (full context)

Kahneman and Klein realized that their disagreements stemmed from the fact that they had different experts in mind.... (full context)

The conclusion that Kahneman and Klein came to is that, for the most part, it is possible to distinguish intuitions that... (full context)

Overconfident optimism is difficult for individuals to tame but perhaps possible for organizations. Gary Klein proposed a procedure called a “premortem.” When making a decision, Klein instructs a company to... (full context)