New Books in Economics

Daryl Fairweather, "Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

Apr 12, 2025

Daryl Fairweather, Chief Economist at Redfin and the first Black woman to earn an economics PhD from the University of Chicago, shares her insights on using economic principles to navigate life’s big decisions. She discusses how economic theories can empower personal choices—from negotiating salaries to deciding when to buy a home. Fairweather also advocates for land value taxation as a fairer alternative to traditional property taxes, aiming to improve housing accessibility. Her unique blend of personal experience and behavioral economics makes complex ideas approachable.

36:04

Episode guests

Daryl Fairweather

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Economics serves as a powerful tool for personal empowerment, guiding informed decision-making in career and relationship choices.

Understanding behavioral economics and negotiation tactics helps individuals navigate personal challenges and achieve better outcomes in significant life decisions.

Deep dives

The Purpose of Economics in Everyday Life

Economics can be a powerful tool for achieving personal goals, whether in careers, love life, or other aspirations. The author highlights that the principles learned in economics can guide individuals to make informed decisions that improve their circumstances. By applying economic intuition, one can navigate challenges in the private sector more confidently and effectively. The focus is on practical applications that help people leverage economic concepts for better outcomes in their daily lives.

Intro

2min

Using Economics for Personal Success

2min

Economics in Everyday Life

12min

Negotiation Insights and Behavioral Economics

9min

Rethinking Land Value Taxation

6min

Negotiation Strategies and the Importance of Mutual Benefits

3min

The secret insights of economics, translated for the rest of us. Should I buy or rent? Do I ask for a promotion? Should I tell people I’m pregnant? What salary do I deserve? Should I just quit this job? Common anxieties about life are often grounded in economics. In an increasingly win-lose society, these economic decisions—where to work, where to live, even how to live—have a way of feeling fixed and mistakes terminal. Daryl Fairweather is no stranger to these dynamics. As the first Black woman to receive an economics PhD from the famed University of Chicago, she saw firsthand how concepts of behavioral economics and game theory were deployed in the real world—and in her own life—to great effect.

Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work (U Chicago Press, 2025) combines Fairweather’s elite knowledge of these principles with her singular voice in describing how they can be harnessed. Her great talent, unique among economists, is her ability to articulate economic trends in a way that is not just informative, but also accounts for life’s other anxieties. In Hate the Game, Fairweather fixes her expertise and service on navigating the earliest economic inflection points of adult life: whether to go to college and for how long; partnering, having kids, both, or neither; getting, keeping, and changing jobs; and where to live and how to pay for it. She speaks in actionable terms about what the economy means for individual people, especially those who have the sneaking suspicion they’re losing out. Set against her own experiences and enriched with lessons from history, science, and pop culture, Fairweather instructs readers on how to use game theory and behavioral science to map out options and choose directions while offering readers a sense of control and agency in an economy where those things are increasingly rare.

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