Big decisions are hard. We might consult friends and family, read advice online or turn to self-help books for guidance, but in the end we usually just do what feels right. But what if our gut is wrong?

As economist and former Google data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz argues, our gut is actually not that reliable – and data can prove this. In Don’t Trust Your Gut, he unearths the startling conclusions that the right data can teach us about who we are and what will make our lives better. Over the past decade, scholars have mined enormous datasets to find remarkable new approaches to life’s biggest self-help puzzles, from the boring careers that produce the most wealth, to old-school, data-backed relationship advice. While we often think we know how to better ourselves, the numbers, it turns out, disagree.

Telling fascinating stories through the latest big data research, Stephens-Davidowitz reveals just how wrong we really are when it comes to improving our lives, and offers a new way of tackling our most consequential choices.