203. Dan Ariely: Gamble With Your Time. Make Amazing Decisions.

Nov 7, 2019

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Dan Ariely (@danariely) has more opportunities than he knows what to do with. As a James B. Duke professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and author of New York Times best-selling books, such as Predictably Irrational, he has lots of demands on his time.

Dan has to say “no” to a lot of opportunities that don’t have a clear payoff. But, surprisingly, he also says “no” to a lot of opportunities that do have a clear payoff.

That’s because, as Dan tells us in this conversation, he gambles with his time. He intentionally does some small amount of things that don’t have a clear payoff. In order to have the space and time for those gambles, he needs to say “no” to some sure bets.

In this episode, we’ll learn more about how Dan gambles with his time. We’ll also learn:

How did “gambling” with his time lead Dan to publish his exciting new graphic novel, Amazing Decisions: The Illustrated Guide to Improving Business Deals and Family Meals?
The creative process for Dan’s new graphic novel is a big departure from that of his research papers and books. How did he navigate the uncertainty when collaborating with an artist?
With everything Dan knows about human behavior, how does he design his habits, rituals and routines to optimize creative output and spark motivation?

This isn’t the typical conversation with the living legend of behavioral science, Dan Ariely. If you want to know more about his groundbreaking work on irrationality, check out our first conversation on episode 51.

A quick note here: Dan and I talk about “Timeful” a number of times throughout this conversation. If you’re not familiar, Timeful was a productivity app that Dan and I collaborated on. It later sold to Google and some of the Timeful features are integrated into Google Calendar.

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David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative.

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