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84 reviews for:
Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
3.69 AVERAGE
84 reviews for:
Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
3.69 AVERAGE
Genius book. One of the best books that I have read in a long, long time. Very entertaining style of writing, great lessons and a wonderful humor. This book doesn’t disappoint, especially if you’re an analyst or use data in some aspect in your professional life.
Edit: On reflection about a month after finishing this, the book itself is not bad, in fact, it's a pretty good synthesis of the last 5-10 years of using data for making conclusions about behavior change. A challenge for me in reading this was that a lot of the 'insights' and the data he presented I had read previously in blogs, article, or hear in podcasts.
Original review:
//Meh.
Like (most) books about using data to design your life it ignores (or simply doesn't have the framework or moral depth)to frame the challenge as first asking what life is worth wanting and then using science to supplement substantial wisdom from spiritual traditions.
Like the author's previous book, it contains interesting insights gleaned from massively large data sets, previously unavailable or impossible to attain. I liked those parts of the book a lot.
But, many sections came out flat because (in my view) using data to try to answer questions of worth and value of a good life isn't a good starting point. Here's an example, the author is plagued by doubts of his appearance, and knowledge from social science that appearance matters for life outcomes like earnings. Like him, I agree, that sucks. But I don't find his solution for appearance improvement very compelling or ultimately satisfying. "At a minimum, you can download FaceApp or a similar program and examine many different looks for you. Even if you don't utilize a random sample of people on the internet, you can ask people on social media or your more honest friends to pick which is a better look for you."
Yes, you can do that. But it's the only solution that data can give you to concerns about appearance and beauty, and it's a pretty thin solution.
Original review:
//Meh.
Like (most) books about using data to design your life it ignores (or simply doesn't have the framework or moral depth)to frame the challenge as first asking what life is worth wanting and then using science to supplement substantial wisdom from spiritual traditions.
Like the author's previous book, it contains interesting insights gleaned from massively large data sets, previously unavailable or impossible to attain. I liked those parts of the book a lot.
But, many sections came out flat because (in my view) using data to try to answer questions of worth and value of a good life isn't a good starting point. Here's an example, the author is plagued by doubts of his appearance, and knowledge from social science that appearance matters for life outcomes like earnings. Like him, I agree, that sucks. But I don't find his solution for appearance improvement very compelling or ultimately satisfying. "At a minimum, you can download FaceApp or a similar program and examine many different looks for you. Even if you don't utilize a random sample of people on the internet, you can ask people on social media or your more honest friends to pick which is a better look for you."
Yes, you can do that. But it's the only solution that data can give you to concerns about appearance and beauty, and it's a pretty thin solution.
It's ok. I found the Opportunity Atlas to be the most interesting thing. It's not bad info just feels a bit basic at times.
I really enjoyed the author's first book, "Everbody Lies", and I was looking forward to this sequel. The author continues down the path of finding unexpected or counterintuitive results from large data, but in this book, he ventures beyond the world of Google Search results and looks at many other sources of big data. The writing is clear and concise, with all of the relevant math well explained, and it is all presented with a mix of good humor that makes it all easy to read. The book is quite short, which is really the only disappointment. So, if you want to know what sports will be the best to help get a college scholarship, or what activities make people the happiest, or how much effect parents have on their children, check this book out.
Always a sucker for social science and what data exists to affirm some notions we have in the world (like spending time with friends bringing us happiness) while telling a different story about other notions (like our perceived attractiveness being fixed)
As someone who frequently DNFs nonfiction books that misinterpret research findings for the sake of popular science, SSD is a paragon for how popular science should be conveyed.
As someone with a tech bro aversion, his adherence to outlining the limitations of the data presented felt way more Ivory Tower than Silicon Valley, and I honestly loved it. Additionally, self-help books give me more of an ick than tech bros (I purchased this after reading Everybody Lies, so I didn't know it was self-help), and this book didn't set off any of the usual red flags I experience reading self-help.
I laughed out loud at his final recommendation; SSD is sincerely a funny dude, and this book was an absolute pleasure, DESPITE what the mappiness data on real time reading pleasure may say.
Full disclosure, I listened to the audiobook version at 1.65x, so my approval of the stats talk is not in-depth.
As someone with a tech bro aversion, his adherence to outlining the limitations of the data presented felt way more Ivory Tower than Silicon Valley, and I honestly loved it. Additionally, self-help books give me more of an ick than tech bros (I purchased this after reading Everybody Lies, so I didn't know it was self-help), and this book didn't set off any of the usual red flags I experience reading self-help.
I laughed out loud at his final recommendation; SSD is sincerely a funny dude, and this book was an absolute pleasure, DESPITE what the mappiness data on real time reading pleasure may say.
Full disclosure, I listened to the audiobook version at 1.65x, so my approval of the stats talk is not in-depth.
informative
medium-paced
Amazing! I loved this book because it resonated so easily with me. Being analytically minded makes this book that much more fascinating. Cannot recommend enough if you are looking to let data drive your decision making.
funny
informative
slow-paced
Don't Trust Your Gut is a data geek dream book! It is all about how big data can guide or really not guide the decision we make in our everyday life - from who to marry, what jobs to pursue and how to achieve happiness. The truth - what we think we know isnt always true and data proves that. I learned a lot of interesting tidbits and definitely know that my gut instinct isnt always right. For me (as a parent), the chapter on parenting was the most interesting and helpful.