Dataism - The New Religion

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Life should be data driven to a certain extent. We can give tax breaks for being married, for homeng owning a home,. You know, we can nudge people to give to charities by giving m a tax break. And i think it's kontoy that you're just going to click on your phone all the time and do this or that. But you will be able to consult data that tells you, spend more time in nature because that maximie has already been achieved. I cement the jol in 85 co authors, where they say, its nearly impossible to predict whether two people are happy in a relationship with data. Sometimes we're dealing with chaotic systems like california

Most people rely on their gut instinct to decide how to date, who to marry, where to live, what career path to take, how to find happiness, but what if our gut is wrong? Biased, unpredictable, and misinformed, our gut, it turns out, is not all that reliable. 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.

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, Stephens-Davidowitz unearths the startling conclusions that the right data can teach us about who we are and what will make our lives better.

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. His previous book, Everybody Lies, was a New York Times bestseller and an Economist Book of the Year. He lives in Brooklyn and is a passionate fan of the Mets, Knicks, Jets, and Leonard Cohen.