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Deep Dive with Ali AbdaalThe Sure-Fire Way To Be Luckier In Life - Advice From Psychology Professor Richard Wiseman
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From Magic to Psychology and Parapsychology
Richard Wiseman explains how a grandfather's magic trick sent him to the library, then into street magic, and on to psychology. A lost bag of props and a stranger's advice to focus on what he could do sparked his interest in psychology, and a PhD advert led him into parapsychology.
- •His grandfather showed him a trick and pointed him to library books on magic
- •He performed street magic in Covent Garden and at the Magic Castle
- •A stranger told him to focus on what he could do instead of what he couldn't
- •He studied psychology at UCL, then did a PhD in Edinburgh on the psychology of deception
- •Chance encounters shaped his career more than planning did
How He Came to Study Luck
Ali asks about luck and serendipity in careers. Wiseman describes interviewing a self-described lucky man, running newspaper appeals for lucky and unlucky people, and how a chance conversation with an agent turned his luck research into his first book.
- •Opportunities are always around, and locking into one career path can cause you to miss them
- •Psychologists had largely ignored luck as a topic
- •About 1,000 people responded to his newspaper appeal
- •A chance conversation with his agent turned luck research into The Luck Factor
The Four Principles of Luck
Wiseman sets out the four traits of lucky people: openness to opportunity, trusting intuition, optimism, and resilience. He tells the story of a man who broke his leg and refused to call it bad luck, and says he focuses on what can change rather than on innate traits.
- •Lucky people are open to opportunities and flexible about how they reach an end goal
- •They trust their gut feelings and are optimistic
- •Resilience is probably the most important principle
- •The man with the broken leg pointed out he had met his wife in hospital
- •Wiseman tests evidence-based interventions rather than relying on made-up self-help advice
Testing Luck: Control Groups, Diaries and Corridor Money
Wiseman explains how his team tests luck interventions with control and placebo groups such as lucky charms. He describes the luck diary, the money-on-the-corridor study, and a digression on Derren Brown and placebo alcohol.
- •Studies used an intervention group, a no-treatment group and a lucky-charm placebo group
- •The luck diary has to be written, not just thought
- •Outcomes ranged from self-ratings to GP visits and income
- •Lucky people were more likely to spot money left in a corridor
- •Groups were around 50 people
Self-Perception, Social Networks and Clichés vs Tactics
After a sponsor break, Wiseman explains how lucky journals change self-perception and how others respond to us, with causality running both ways. He argues that clichés like looking on the bright side are only useful when turned into concrete tactics such as counterfactual thinking.
- •Changing self-perception changes how others treat you
- •Lucky people are happier and have bigger social networks
- •Causality between feeling unlucky and bad outcomes runs both ways
- •Counterfactual thinking and looking for a silver lining are practical tactics
- •Wiseman says the action is in the tactics rather than the strategy
Writing Books: Lowering the Stakes and Daily Word Counts
Ali admits he is struggling to write his book on sustainable productivity. Wiseman describes his own method of writing 1,500 words a day for 80,000 words in two months without worrying about quality, then editing on alternate days, and explains why he doesn't want to write more books.
- •Ali says the pressure of a book makes the bar feel too high
- •Wiseman writes a rough first draft of 80,000 words in two months
- •He writes 1,500 words each morning before doing anything else
- •He edits afterwards on a day-on, day-off schedule
- •He finds book writing lonely, and the last book was with David Copperfield
Skipping Goals: Interest, Passion and Enough Money
Wiseman says he has never had a career endpoint and just asks whether something is interesting. He suggests finding your passion with a desert island test and earning enough to get by, and the pair discuss retirement and what makes a good life.
- •Wiseman judges his career by whether he is having a good time and is interested
- •The desert island test of five books on one topic reveals your passion
- •Earning enough to get by matters, while chasing multimillions is a false god
- •Mystery and curiosity hold interest, as with magic tricks and the paranormal
- •He sees little point in retiring from work you enjoy
Gravestones, Eulogies and Finding Your Purpose
Ali shares his gravestone exercise and his worry about what he will do at 50. Wiseman talks about moving on from YouTube and describes the eulogy intervention, and both treat purpose exercises as a barometer rather than a destination.
- •Ali's gravestone exercise pointed to being a good father, husband and inspirational teacher
- •Wiseman stopped making Quirkology videos because he had nothing more to say
- •People change, and skills get used differently as we age
- •The eulogy intervention checks whether your life matches what you'd want said
- •Purpose exercises work as a barometer of direction
Writing Process Tips and Dale Carnegie's Failure Journal
The conversation returns to writing blocks. Wiseman suggests knowing what you want to say, being interviewed by a friend, using Post-Its and imagining a talk. He also dislikes affirmations and praises Dale Carnegie's journal of silly things he'd done.
- •Know the point of each thousand words before writing it
- •Getting a friend to interview you could produce a starting transcript
- •Wiseman cites research that affirmations can backfire for people with low self-esteem
- •He recommends finding evidence and doing kind things rather than saying affirmations
- •Carnegie's journal recorded a regret and what he would do to prevent it
- •Carnegie's books are transcripts of talks from a decade-long speaking tour
The As If Principle and Psychology's Replication Crisis
Wiseman explains the As If principle from William James, that acting a certain way can create the matching emotions. They discuss the replication difficulties of the facial feedback hypothesis and how failed replications of Daryl Bem's precognition studies helped spark psychology's focus on pre-registration.
- •Behaving as if you feel something can generate the thoughts and emotions
- •The facial feedback hypothesis has proven hard to replicate
- •Wiseman failed to replicate Daryl Bem's studies of seeing into the future
- •The replication and pre-registration movement partly traces back to parapsychology
The Paranormal and the Apollo Mission Controllers
Wiseman explains that paranormal experiences are genuine though he is skeptical of paranormal explanations, and that the spinoffs of such research matter, such as the EEG machine. He then describes his book on Apollo mission controllers, covering their openness to mistakes, self-belief, reliability and humility.
- •Experiences of ghosts and psychics are genuine even if the explanations are not paranormal
- •Hans Berger sought evidence of telepathy and invented the EEG
- •The Apollo mission controllers were young and from modest backgrounds
- •They celebrated mistakes and only lost their jobs by covering them up
- •They were conscientious and humble, with no egos in the room
Likability, Trust and Collaboration
Ali asks how to become more likable. Wiseman recommends Carnegie's advice to be genuinely interested in others, compares websites to people, and says trust takes time to build and is easily lost. They also discuss the boss power dynamic and collaboration.
- •Genuine interest in others works better than trying to make people interested in you
- •Likability can't be faked for long
- •Trust builds slowly but can vanish with one lie
- •A shop assistant rewarded mask wearers rather than punishing the rest
- •Lucky people and Apollo controllers look for win-win collaboration
Positive Self-Talk, Staying Present and Audiences as One Person
Asked about positive self-talk, Wiseman says it varies by person and that affirmations don't work for him. He shares a Vegas performers' trick of accepting that it will end but not tonight, and the pair discuss being grounded in the present and how an audience becomes one person.
- •Use self-talk if it helps you and drop it if it doesn't
- •Vegas performers accept it will all end someday but not tonight
- •A friend told Ali he would give anything for another day like his brunch
- •Some mission controllers said their achievements felt like gulping fine wine
- •Wiseman says an audience becomes one personality, which keeps him calm
Magic Performing, the Fringe and Community
Ali and Wiseman swap stories about performing magic, including the Edinburgh Fringe, walk-around magic and Ali's disastrous first gig. Wiseman discusses creativity, his innovative shows and why community and reputation matter, with a note on finding a product people want.
- •The Edinburgh Fringe is competitive but a good way to test material
- •A reviewer's tip: performers who recommend other shows tend to have good shows
- •Walk-around close-up magic is stressful and awkward
- •Wiseman created a performer-less show called Experimental
- •Community and reputation matter in magic, YouTube and business
Captain Fearless, Doing Things for Their Own Sake and Wrap-Up
Wiseman recalls touring the South Coast in a van with a charity magic show, and the rule of only talking about a plan three times. Ali reflects on never having had a gap year, they discuss Die With Zero and Ali's ambitions, and the episode closes.
- •The Captain Fearless show raised money for cancer research
- •The rule was to do an idea by the third time of mentioning it
- •Reputation can limit you
- •Die With Zero argues for gaining life experiences while young
- •Ali wants to work on a cups and balls act for Covent Garden
Publisher timestamps
- 0:00Intro
- 1:57Getting into psychology
- 8:05The psychology of luck
- 13:10How can you test something like luck?
- 19:29How lucky journals change your self perception
- 20:50The problem with reduce self-help to a cliché
- 22:00Ali’s book writing struggle
- 28:08Why we shouldn’t care about goals
- 30:20The balance between passion and making money
- 44:03The As If principle
- 49:04Research into the paranormal
- 50:38The mindset of going to the moon
- 53:54How to be more likeable
- 58:01How much is positive self-talk useful?
- 1:02:29Magic and performing
