Big decisions are hard. With an overwhelming variety of advice at our disposal, we usually just do what feels right, pursuing high-stakes self-improvement-who we marry, how to date, where to live, what makes us happy-based solely on what our gut instinct tells us. But what if our gut is wrong? In Don't Trust Your Gut, economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times bestselling author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz reveals just how wrong we really are when it comes to improving our own lives. In the past decade, scholars have mined enormous datasets to find remarkable new approaches to life's biggest self-help puzzles. Telling fascinating, unexpected stories with these numbers and the latest Big Data research, Stephens-Davidowitz exposes that while we often think we know how to better ourselves, the numbers disagree. Hard facts and figures consistently contradict our instincts and demonstrate self-help that actually works-from the best time in life to start a business or the boring careers that produce the most wealth he unearths the startling conclusions that the right data can teach us about who we are and what will make our lives better. Packed with fresh, entertaining insights, Don't Trust Your Gut redefines how to tackle our most consequential choices, one that hacks the market inefficiencies of life and leads us to make smarter decisions about how to improve our lives. Because in the end, the numbers don't lie.