Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life

Sometimes our gut, when not guided by careful computer analysis, can be dead wrong. We can get blinded by our own experiences and prejudices.

When Charles Darwin was trying to decide whether he should propose to his cousin Emma Wedgwood, he got out a pencil and paper and weighed every possible consequence. In favor of marriage he listed children, companionship, and the “charms of music & female chit-chat.” Against marriage he listed the “terrible loss of time,” lack of freedom to go

Sometimes a new dataset reveals a behavior, desire, or concern that I would have never even considered. There are numerous sexual proclivities that fall into this category. For example, did you know that in India the number one search beginning “my husband wants . . .” is “my husband wants me to breastfeed him”?

high earning capacity is a proxy for larger character traits our female ancestors would have found attractive and necessary.

text as data may give us unprecedented insights into what audiences actually want, which may be different from what authors or executives think they want.