EP 258 Book Club Series: Don't Trust your Gut by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: I'm super excited because this is a book club episode. As we read a book every month and I talk about it on my podcast. We also do a live discussion on zoom. So if you're interested in joining the book club, go to saramayer.com/joinbookclub you're already in the book club. You know where to go.
Sara Mayer: You get an email. Every month with the updated book for the month, [00:01:00] as well as when the live discussion is. So this month we're talking about, don't trust your gut, using data to get what you really want in life by Seth Stevens Davowitz. And. Many books, I have a bajillion tabs and you may be wondering if you follow along, if you're looking on YouTube, watching on YouTube, which if you're not, you should check out the YouTube channel.
Sara Mayer: This one, I don't have a lot of tabs and quite frankly, it's because I was reading this book and I lost my tabs. I was not in my house when I was reading this book, but I do have a lot of highlights. So just so you know. First, I want to talk a little bit about this book because there are many decisions we make in life and many people suggest that we trust our gut.
Sara Mayer: But! When we trust our gut, the research shows us that we don't make the best decisions or we put off [00:02:00] making those decisions. So we know that big decisions in our lives are very difficult, but this book is all about using data to make those big decisions. You may or may not know, but Seth, the author is a data scientist, a former Google data scientist, and of course, a New York times, bestselling writer.
Sara Mayer: And he really was motivated to write this book when he started digging into how people make decisions. And so I always like to read a couple of things here about this. Scholars, this is why he wanted to write this book. So scholars in the past decade have mined enormous data sets to find remarkable new approaches to solve life's biggest self help puzzles.
Sara Mayer: He likes to talk about in here how we can use that data to make better decisions and why it helps us make better decisions. So let's jump in. [00:03:00] So the central concept of the book is that we should rely on data rather than intuition for better decision making. It allows us to take emotion out of it and to truly make the best decision for us.
Sara Mayer: So Basically, he has a lot of different data in here. And so sometimes he talks about how these relate to your personal choices, your relationships, your career choices, as well as personal habits. So the first thing is he gives some practical tips for making data do. driven decisions. And most things can be measured by data.
Sara Mayer: So even if you think, Oh that's subjective how I feel. That isn't always the case. You can always use data. So measuring your happiness, measuring your feeling [00:04:00] for that. He basically talks about how you can make better life decisions and big data helps for you to do that. The 1st thing he talks about the controversy, maybe around this book that people are taught to listen to themselves and having heartfelt talks with themselves and what he shares in this book, which I'm going to read about, is that.
Sara Mayer: We are frequently too optimistic, overestimate the prevalence of easily remembered stories, latch on to information that fits what we want to believe, and wrongly conclude that we can explain events that at the time were unpredictable and on. And so he talks about how listening to yourself may have sound, may sound liberating and romantic, but listening to yourself Sounds frankly dangerous after reading the list of cognitive bias.
Sara Mayer: So big data does offer [00:05:00] a way for us to make decisions and really have more of a sound outcome. One of the biggest decisions that we make in our life is who to have romantic relationships with or to marry. And, He basically says that there's a lot of data on it that we are just not good at picking people that are great life partners.
Sara Mayer: And so there's so many decisions that are examples in this book of how, when we use data, we actually will make a better solid decision. There's a couple tests. So I'm going to give you these as well in the show notes. So there's an attachment test when you're talking about relationships. There's a conscientiousness quiz and a growth mindset quiz.
Sara Mayer: So using data to really think about how we're making some of these personal decisions is really important. Now, [00:06:00] I could go on and on about the data in this book. There are so many studies and different, like really interesting facts. I'm flipping through it if you're watching YouTube. And one of the things that he talks a lot about is business and money.
Sara Mayer: And so the majority of wealthy Americans tend to not be more happy than others. Actually, there's You know, a lot of data on the fact that the more money you make, it doesn't necessarily increase your happiness exponentially, which is really interesting, cool fact, but what is really cool about the book is he breaks down the fact that in order to be successful, you need to be amazing and you need to be above and beyond what other people are, and there's this myth out there that.
Sara Mayer: If you're marginal, you won't be successful, but the data actually suggests differently that people who have [00:07:00] failed actually have an edge on entrepreneurship or building a business because they are able to overcome those things more quickly. And that's really counterintuitive. Many people think if you, in order to be successful, you need to be exceptional.
Sara Mayer: And that's It's not always the case. There's a couple of theories in this book. Like he talks about the Mona Lisa effect and how luck plays into success. So the first one is that the Mona Lisa, there are events that happen that are unpredictable, that you can't predict that cause massive success. So if you don't know the history of Mona Lisa hung in the Louvre for many years, and then somebody tried to steal it, they did steal it.
Sara Mayer: It went missing, there was a lot of press around it, it was eventually returned, it was rumored to be stolen by JP Morgan from the bank, JP Morgan, and now it's a huge hit. And so that is an example of an [00:08:00] unpredictable event that massively influences success. So that's one. The second effect is the da Vinci effect.
Sara Mayer: It's not what you produced, it's who you are. It says that the success of someone is based on what people are willing to pay for the work. And it's not necessarily the best work, but it's, where they where they have gained this fame of just who it is. And then there's the Springsteen rule, which is travel widely to find your break.
Sara Mayer: They found that some painters, if they. Hit certain galleries, so the places they were going were really popular that they were more likely to be a hit. So there's several things that are in play of whether or not you'll be successful. There's also Picasso's rule that the more you put out there, the more luck will find you.
Sara Mayer: And this is really applies to dating [00:09:00] to the more dates you ask people to go on, the more likely. You will find a partner and this also applies to jobs if you're applying for jobs or anything like that. All right. So he also shares a lot of data on happiness and pleasure. And what's really interesting, if you're following along on page 221, they measured the happiness of people and no surprise.
Sara Mayer: Number 1 is intimacy. Has the highest happiness when you're doing that activity number 2 is dinner dance or a concert and number 3 is going to a museum library or exhibition number 4 sports 5 is gardening. It's a really interesting list, but on the bottom of the list, no surprise the least happy.
Sara Mayer: Activity is being sick in bed. Work or studying, care or help for [00:10:00] adults, waiting in a queue, admin finances or organizing in a meeting, traveling. Or commuting to work, just interesting. So like the active travel. Emails on their number 32 out of 40. so I think it's really important when we're looking at happiness and what we want in our life that we do look at data.
Sara Mayer: I will tell you that this book talks a lot about data and different decisions and stuff like that. But what I found lacking in this book is that it doesn't really tell you how you can use data in your life as you make decisions. So I think it would have been nice and interesting for him to say, here's the top decisions you make in your life and here's how you might use data and where you might get that.
Sara Mayer: He didn't do that. I would have done that. But I think it's really important to think about how you're using data [00:11:00] when you make decisions. How are you using data every week to measure your progress rather than just your feeling or your gut? I'm not saying turn your gut away completely. But I think it is important to be thinking about how you're actually quantifying your life, your happiness, your productivity, so that you truly can make decisions that are valid and sound, and you can measure your progress.
Sara Mayer: So don't necessarily throw your gut out, but do use data to measure how you're doing. All right, Bull Gold Crushers, next book, On Your Best Behavior, The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good by Eloise Lohan. And I'm very excited to jump into this book for July. This is a pretty hefty book.
Sara Mayer: It's about 400 pages, pretty thick, a little bit smaller font. So I started reading like the first paragraph. I'm not. All the way in yet, [00:12:00] but this, I think is going to be a great book for July. I hope you join the book club sarahmayer. com slash join book club. Okay. Bold goal crushers. It's time to get out there and crush your goals and everything that gets in the way because you do not need to work double time.
Sara Mayer: So let's get to it.
