Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in LIfe

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

May 2022 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

"Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is more than a data scientist. He is a prophet for how to use the data revolution to reimagine your life. Don’t Trust Your Gut is a tour de force—an intoxicating blend of analysis, humor, and humanity.” — Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

Big decisions are hard. We consult friends and family, make sense of confusing “expert” advice online, maybe we read a self-help book to guide us. In the end, we usually just do what feels right, pursuing high stakes self-improvement—such as who we marry, how to date, where to live, what makes us happy—based solely on what our gut instinct tells us. But what if our gut is wrong? Biased, unpredictable, and misinformed, our gut, it turns out, is not all that reliable. And data can prove this.

In Don’t Trust Your Gut, economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times bestselling author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz reveals just how wrong we really are when it comes to improving our own lives. In the past decade, scholars have mined enormous datasets to find remarkable new approaches to life’s biggest self-help puzzles. Data from hundreds of thousands of dating profiles have revealed surprising successful strategies to get a date; data from hundreds of millions of tax records have uncovered the best places to raise children; data from millions of career trajectories have found previously unknown reasons why some rise to the top.

Telling fascinating, unexpected stories with these numbers and the latest big data research, Stephens-Davidowitz exposes that, while we often think we know how to better ourselves, the numbers disagree. Hard facts and figures consistently contradict our instincts and demonstrate self-help that actually works—whether it involves the best time in life to start a business or how happy it actually makes us to skip a friend’s birthday party for a night of Netflix on the couch. From the boring careers that produce the most wealth, to the old-school, data-backed relationship advice so well-worn it’s become a literal joke, he unearths the startling conclusions that the right data can teach us about who we are and what will make our lives better.

Lively, engrossing, and provocative, the end result opens up a new world of self-improvement made possible with massive troves of data. Packed with fresh, entertaining insights, Don’t Trust Your Gut redefines how to tackle our most consequential choices, one that hacks the market inefficiencies of life and leads us to make smarter decisions about how to improve our lives. Because in the end, the numbers don’t lie.

Ratings and reviews

Hmmmmm????? So basically, let data run our lives?? The world/data to do our thinking & tell us how/what to feel, tell us if we r happy or sad???? Ummmmm.. yeah... No thx ... I love MY "GUT" & I love MY OWN MIND; I OWN them both until death due us part..... and they BOTH will be cremated at the time of my demise, of my OWN decision. Thx but no thx, keep ur book.... Took a lot of audacity to publish it, ur probably for one world order too. (Just MY opinion....) Smh 🙄Here's a "hint", happiness is choice, success is a choice, marriage is a choice.... It's all part of "living" a LIFE! Oh, one more thing..... I approve of this review! Hahaha I don't even have a PhD nor am I prophet!Just went to read some more reviews by others, go figure.... They have all been deleted.... Hmmmmm..... Makes a person wonder 🤔

About the author

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, a lecturer at The Wharton School, and a former Google data scientist. He received a BA from Stanford and a PhD from Harvard. His research has appeared in the Journal of Public Economics and other prestigious publications. He lives in New York City.