I really liked reading this chapter, for the reason that it kind of got me thinking in circles and questioning my own beliefs. For instance, I have always believed in the "hot hand" in sports, and had never really thought of it as a supernatural phenomena, but as a fact (something to do with muscle memory, I assumed). That got me thinking, well if THAT'S just due to a random sequence, then why did I believe in that, and what else do I perceive as fact that can only be attributed to chance?
The chapter also kind of slapped me in the face with the "Not Me Fallacy". I'm not saying I'm cocky, because I'm betting that most people tend to think similarly (although, damned if I know...), but I all too frequently find the little person in my mind smirking and smugly crossing his arms after I decide that I am totally objective and open-minded. I've never thought of myself as smug before, but for some reason that word kept popping into my head as I read.
And yet, at the same time, I almost felt MORE smug after reading this chapter. Now I know about all of these psychological terms, and I can totally pin them on my younger sister when she's trying to convince me of something, and I'll know I'm right because I read it in a psych text... which, in turn, gets me really frustrated, because half of this chapter was about exactly why that sort of thinking is dangerous.
Damn. Well, I'm excited for the course.
I also find the "hot hand" topic in this book to be very interesting. While the book does a great job explaining how it is just a random sequence, I believe that they forgot about a variable that could influence the "hot or cold hand". I am sure that in your lifetime you have been "hot", and when you are "hot" your self confidence is off the charts. When you have high confidence you trust your abilities, thus in my opinion are more than likely to preform better. Take the Duke vs UNC game that occurred last night for example: Austin Rivers was "hot" the whole game and with 1 second left he was confident in his ability so he launched a deep 3 pointer. The shot went in and his team won. I am skeptical of the hot hand not existing until there is a psychological test that shows that confidence and performance are not correlated.