Don't trust your gut : using data to get what you really want in life

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

307 pages ; 22 cm.

Summary:

You know less than you think you do - about what makes you healthy, what makes you rich, who you should date, where you should live. You know less than you think you do about how to raise your children, or, for that matter, whether you should have children in the first place. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz showed how big data is revolutionizing the social sciences. He shows how big data can help us find answers to some of the most important questions we face - and how these answers can radically improve our lives.

Contents:

Introduction: Self-help for data geeks -- The AI marriage - Location. Location. Location. The secret to great parenting - The likeliest path to athletic greatness if you have no talent -- Who is secretly rich in America? -- The long, boring slog of success -- Hacking luck to your advantage -- Makeover: nerd edition -- The life-changing magic of leaving your couch -- The misery-inducing traps of modern life -- Conclusion.

Subject Term:

Decision making -- Social aspects.

Data mining -- Social aspects.

Big data -- Social aspects.

Publication Info:

New York, NY : Dey St., an imprint of William Morrow, 2022.

Subject:

Decision making -- Social aspects.

Data mining -- Social aspects.

Big data -- Social aspects.

Deciding

Decision (Psychology)

Decision analysis

Decision processes

Making decisions

Management -- Decision making

Management decisions

Algorithmic knowledge discovery

Factual data analysis

KDD (Information retrieval)

Knowledge discovery in data

Knowledge discovery in databases

Mining, Data

Data sets, Large

Large data sets

SAILS ISBN:

9780062880918

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Lakeville Public Library	158.1 STE	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"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.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

"Big Data can help you" make better decisions, suggests New York Times op-ed contributor Stephens-Davidowitz (Everybody Lies) in this snappy guide. Taking a "Moneyball for your life" approach to self-help, the author uses data set analysis to advise on such areas as professional success, athletic talent, happiness, and love. On choosing a partner, the author examines data from dating sites to reveal that good partners tend to be happy, conscientious, and possess a growth mindset, but are not necessarily conventionally attractive. Research on educational and economic outcomes show that the most consequential decision most parents can make about their children's future is where to raise them, the author posits, and IRS tax data indicates that those looking for financial success should aspire to run such competition-limited businesses as car dealerships. The author's exploration of a massive happiness study reveals a mix of the expected (people like sex) and the surprising (people don't enjoy computer games much). Stephens-Davidowitz maintains a breezy, conversational style that lends a lighthearted touch to all the wonkery. Whether confirming or debunking conventional wisdom, the smooth presentation and quantitative detail bring a welcome analytical rigor to the self-help genre. (May)

Introduction: Self-Help for Data Geeks	p. 1
Chapter 1 The Al Marriage	p. 21
Chapter 2 Location. Location. Location. The Secret to Great Parenting	p. 57
Chapter 3 The Likeliest Path to Athletic Greatness If You Have No Talent	p. 89
Chapter 4 Who Is Secretly Rich in America?	p. 111
Chapter 5 The Long, Boring Slog of Success	p. 137
Chapter 6 Hacking Luck to Your Advantage	p. 155
Chapter 7 Makeover: Nerd Edition	p. 189
Chapter 8 The Life-Changing Magic of Leaving Your Couch	p. 207
Chapter 9 The Misery-Inducing Traps of Modern Life	p. 229
Conclusion	p. 263
Acknowledgments	p. 267
Appendix	p. 271
Notes	p. 273
Index	p. 295

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Table of Contents