Title:

>Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago

This is an obvious reference to Daniel Kahneman's bestseller of the same title which tackles rationality, emotion, and decision-making.


Abstract:

>We present the results of three large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) carried out in Chicago, testing interventions to reduce crime and dropout by changing the decision-making of economically disadvantaged youth. We study a program called Becoming a Man (BAM), developed by the non-profit Youth Guidance, in two RCTs implemented in 2009–10 and 2013–15. In the two studies participation in the program reduced total arrests during the intervention period by 28–35%, reduced violent-crime arrests by 45–50%, improved school engagement, and in the first study where we have follow-up data, increased graduation rates by 12–19%. The third RCT tested a program with partially overlapping components carried out in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC), which reduced readmission rates to the facility by 21%. These large behavioral responses combined with modest program costs imply benefit-cost ratios for these interventions from 5-to-1 up to 30-to-1 or more. Our data on mechanisms are not ideal, but we find no positive evidence that these effects are due to changes in emotional intelligence or social skills, self-control or “grit,” or a generic mentoring effect. We find suggestive support for the hypothesis that the programs work by helping youth slow down and reflect on whether their automatic thoughts and behaviors are well suited to the situation they are in, or whether the situation could be construed differently.

Honestly, for me, I think it's coming across more traditionally-minded people who think I'm not behaving in a sufficiently "feminine" way. I often get told that I'm "unladylike" because I have a direct way of speaking and don't always go out of my way to soothe people's feelings. (Mind you, I'm usually polite and courteous.) Interestingly, it is mostly older women who give me this feedback.

That being said, I think I'm one of the ENTP women who is - maybe a little more in touch with her feelings than other ENTP women? (I say this because the few ENTP women I know all seem to really HATE ~FEELINGS~; I'm mostly just sort of confused by mine.) Something that really helped me a while back with understanding emotions was Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. One of the basic ideas in the book is that intuitions and emotions are as much insights (and there valid) as (analytical) thoughts and opinions, so the better way to deal with your emotions is not to treat them as the enemy but clues to something that your conscious and "rational" brain may be missed.

/u/papermarioguy02's reading list outline:

Several people have asked me about what things to read to get initiated in the stuff I'm interested in. I don't really think that I'm the best teaching resource, but I can at least list off the pieces of media that have influenced my thoughts to a certain extent. This is just an outline, and you should probably use /u/integralds' list as a more authoritative resource, he's not 14, but this is how I got where I am (I also don't 100% agree with all of the arguments presented on the reading list, but they have influenced me).

Articles

In Praise of Cheap Labor - Paul Krugman

The Obama Doctrine - Jeffery Goldberg

The Case for Reparations - Ta-Nehisi Coates


How Politics Makes us Stupid - Ezra Klein


What the Fox Knows - Nate Silver

Books

Principles of Economics - Greg Mankiw

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

International Economics: Theory and Policy - Paul Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld (READING STILL IN PROGRESS, and reading Princples of Economics or some other 101 textbook is probably a prerequisite here)

Capitalism and Freedom - Milton Friedman (READING IN PROGRESS, and again, you should probably read the 101 textbook before this one)

Non Print Stuff

Any of the Crash Course series hosted by John Green. They aren't anywhere near perfect, but they do a good job of introducing you to subjects, and giving some insight on how to think about some topics.

Any of Khan Academy's math stuff. All very good explanations of many different ideas

Grant Sanderson's Essence of Calculus series, a way of getting a good visual intuition for how some really important math works.

____

Again, this is just one 14 year old's list. I do not pretend to be authoritative or that anything here is perfect, but they are things that have influenced the way I've thought about things. This is still an outline, so I might add things here in the future.

/u/Devjorcra, /u/Shawshank_Fanatic

There are drugs that can help with specific problems but not everything.
If you have the chance, I'd recommend three books for meta-learning:

• Remember Everything You Read
  
• Thinking Fast and Slow
  
• Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
  
  Failing that, you can check out Thomas Frank.

That will come with time! I suggest reading some books that will help you on self-improvement:


The Tipping Point and The Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell


Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman


Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Ah, I loved How to Sleep as well! Considering that your brother liked a book that explains how our body works, maybe he'd like a book that explains how our mind works.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman talks about how our brain make decisions. The Author actually won a Nobel Prize in economics for the work he did in Psychology.

First of all, ignore the downvotes. Everyone has to start somewhere, and 17 is about as good as it gets.

I agree with u/brandonIsAFreeElf that the best investment you can make at your age is personal development. Video game addiction is a real thing, and if it's affecting your mental health, take care of yourself first. Investing is great life skill, but money won't solve every problem. I also agree with his point about focusing on future earning potential. The more money you have to invest, the more money you can make investing.

Unfortunately, the other users are correct that $500 is too little to get started (see edit below). That will be chewed up with trading fees and charges for being under minimum account balances. I think the recommendation for parking it in a high interest savings account is a solid one. If you aren't working, try to land a part time job to build that capital up (to maybe $5-10K?). This is old man stuff, but you'll appreciate the effort that went into it and you'll be more afraid of losing it. Risk management is a critical skill in investing. While building up that capital, learn as much as you can. Maybe open a paper trading account just to practice implementing some of your ideas.

I can offer some broader insights that I wish a mentor had told me when I was starting:

• Learn investor psychology and always stay objective. There are two things an investment can do for you. It can make you money, or it can lose you money. Consider the upside and downside every step of the way. Recognize tunnel vision, recency bias, confirmation bias, etc. These skills will teach you when to take profits instead of being the fool who doubles down. The best books I've read on this subject are Thinking Fast and Slow and Think Twice.
  
• Learn how the broad economy works (at least the basics). It's great to learn all the ins and outs of a particular company. But if you don't understand, for example, how a slowdown in the US, Chinese and European economies affects oil consumption, you're going to have a tough time trading oil stocks.
  
• Learn market history. If you zoom way out on market charts, you'll see something interesting. Markets work in cycles. They go up for a while. They go down for a while. There are different strategies for dealing with this. Just recognize it's happened all through history, and will continue into the future. I can't recommend this video from Ray Dalio enough. Watch that a few times over the next few months. Then download and read his Navigating Big Debt Crises book.
  
• Learn the asset classes. Investing isn't all about stocks. You can also make a lot of money in real estate, currencies, bonds, commodities, precious metals, etc. Having a decent understanding of macroeconomic cycles and market history can point you towards which assets are bound to outperform under different conditions.
  
• Consider your sources. It's great you're looking for advice, but realize 95+% of us are amateurs. If you put some effort into learning, you'll start recognizing all of the classic investment mistakes in recommendations here. Watch Ray Dalio and Stan Druckenmiller interviews. Watch Real Vision interviews. There are plenty for free on Youtube.
  
• Just keep learning. Economies and markets are dynamic. The best investment strategies of the last 30 years likely won't be the best for the next 30. You have to evolve.
  
  Hope that helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, or I can answer them here.
  
  Edit: I noticed another post here recommending a Wealthsimple Trade account. I was unaware of this option, so I take back my comments about $500 not being enough to invest! However, I do still recommend taking a step back and learning some fundamentals before throwing your money into the markets.