Live The Perfect Life, Using Data - Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a data scientist, economist and author. Imagine if you had access to millions of data points which tell you exactly what makes people happy, or makes people attracted to you, or what actually influences your child's outcomes in life, or the most reliable way to become rich. Well Seth did, and he wrote a book with all his findings in it. Expect to learn how you can conduct a survey to test different appearance styles to find out which is best for you, what personality traits result in the happiest relationships, which activities which make you most and least happy, the secret industries of people who become rich in America, how to hack luck using data and much more... Sponsors: Join the Modern Wisdom Community to connect with me & other listeners - https://modernwisdom.locals.com/ Get 2 weeks free access to Wondrium by going to https://www.wondrium.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get 15% discount on Upgraded Formulas Test Kit at https://upgradedformulas.com/ (use code: MW15) Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours at https://www.drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Extra Stuff: Buy Don't Trust Your Gut - https://amzn.to/3PkKXyU Follow Seth on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SethS_D Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #datascience #happiness #dating - 00:00 Intro 00:25 Seth’s New Book 04:25 How Appearance Influences Success 10:50 Insights from Dating Data 15:58 Physical Attractiveness & Happiness 24:22 Data on What Makes People Happy 38:00 Best Ways to Become Rich 44:58 Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur 52:00 How to Hack Luck 1:00:35 Data on Parenting 1:05:27 Where to Find Seth - Join the Modern Wisdom Community on Locals - https://modernwisdom.locals.com/ Listen to all episodes on audio: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Seth Stephens-DavidowitzguestChris Williamsonhost

May 15, 20221h 6mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Use Data, Not Instinct, To Optimize Happiness, Wealth, And Love

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz discusses his book "Don't Trust Your Gut," which applies large-scale data to life decisions in domains like happiness, dating, appearance, money, entrepreneurship, parenting, and luck.
He contrasts evidence-based insights with traditional self-help narratives, showing how our intuitions about what makes us happy or successful are often wrong and socially conditioned.
Key themes include the modest but real impact of money on happiness, the outsized importance of psychological traits over looks in relationships, strategies for standing out in dating and business, and the power of environment and volume of output in "hacking" luck.
Overall, he argues that careful use of data can help people make counterintuitive but more effective choices about how to live, work, love, and raise children.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Money does increase happiness, but with sharply diminishing returns.

Doubling income tends to yield the same modest happiness gain whether you go from $40k to $80k or $4M to $8M; above a certain point (around multimillionaire status), extra happiness mainly comes from outsourcing unpleasant tasks rather than consumption.

Optimize your appearance strategically using data, not guesswork.

Small visual changes can dramatically change how competent or attractive you seem; using tools like FaceApp plus photofeeler.com lets you A/B test beards, glasses, hair, etc., and identify the specific look that gets you better ratings on key traits.

In dating, being polarizing and prolific beats playing it safe.

If you're not conventionally elite in looks, lean hard into an extreme, authentic version of yourself rather than smoothing edges; combine this with messaging many potential partners, because even low per-message odds compound into high overall chances.

We overvalue looks and status and undervalue psychological traits in partners.

Large studies of thousands of couples show qualities like secure attachment, growth mindset, conscientiousness, and life satisfaction better predict relationship happiness than height, conventional attractiveness, or job prestige, even though apps optimize for the latter.

Simple, often obvious activities produce the most reliable happiness.

Experience-sampling data with millions of entries shows people are happiest having sex, walking in nature, gardening, exercising, or spending time with friends and partners, and are least happy on social media, waiting in lines, gaming, or browsing the internet.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

The data-driven answer to life is to be with your love on an 80 degree and sunny day overlooking a beautiful body of water having sex.

— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

What would actually be, like, what if you just explored all the areas of life and just said what the data tells you on it?

— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

In dating, you don’t want to be average to people. You want to be the extreme, something that’s the most appealing.

— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

There’s a total disconnect between what people are swiping for or trying to date and what actually makes people happy.

— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Some ideas are almost too compelling that they fool us… We want to believe them too much, so everybody wants to believe that tomorrow they can just wake up and design a new car or design some new chemical having never done it before—and it’s not how the world works.

— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Limits of intuition and traditional self-help vs. data-driven adviceMoney, happiness, and the diminishing returns of higher incomeAppearance optimization and how looks shape social and career outcomesData-driven dating: attraction, polarizing traits, and long-term relationship happinessEntrepreneurship, wealth creation, and misleading myths about startup successHappiness research: activities, social media, and the tension with meaningParenting, neighborhood effects, and leveraging environment and role modelsLuck, creative output, and strategies to increase exposure to opportunity

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