It’s a romantic concept: the idea that your gut feeling will inevitably guide you down the right path. And it’s how most of us make decisions, regardless of how logical we think we are.
‘We might consult some friends, family members or self-proclaimed gurus. We might read some advice that isn’t based on much. We might squint at some very basic facts. Then, we will do what feels right.’ But, says Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, your gut is very often leading you astray. And he’s got the data to back it up.
‘You can make better life decisions. Big Data can help you,’ reads the opening sentence of Seth’s book Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data Instead of Instinct to Make Better Choices. Take a second and reread that first line. Did it draw you in? Seth didn’t choose it on a whim. It’s based on research, specifically, Amazon Kindle research that found that people were 12 times more likely to underline sentences containing the word ‘you’. And the best-selling non-fiction book category is (you guessed it) self-help. We are navel gazers, whether we like it or not.
So who is this guy telling you not to listen to your inner voice? Well, Seth was a data scientist working for Google. So yes, he is a big ol’ data geek. But he makes a compelling argument. As former Google CEO Eric Schmidt puts it, ‘In God we trust. All others
