Below are my notes from a book called, Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data To Get What You Really Want In Life. It’s not a comprehensive summary of the book, just some things that stood out to me and that I wanted to remember. The statements below are based on statistical research and are general, not absolute:

Getting noticed

-If you’re an artist or writer or someone who has work or ideas that you want others to discover, don’t present your work to the same place over and over. Present your work to a wider range of places. This increases your odds of being discovered. Also, the more reputable or prestigious the venue is that accepts your work, the more valuable your work will be perceived.

-Being prolific increases your odds in dating, getting a job, and your work being discovered. It’s like buying more lottery tickets. The more people you try to match with on dating sites, the more likely you’ll find a good match. The more jobs you apply to, the more likely you’ll get a good one. The more paintings you paint, the more likely that one will become a major success.

-We tend to make serious inferences about people, based on their face. For example, people who look competent are more likely to win elections (it’s the most important factor) and people who look dominant are more likely to be promoted in the military. You can do things to make yourself look more competent—the author recommends checking out FaceApp, which will help you experiment with different looks. You can have people rate your appearance by using GuidedTrack, Positly or Photofeeler.com.

-Looks are also the most important factor when in comes to receiving or getting responses on dating apps. It’s true for both men and women, but men deem it even more important than women do. Looks aren’t everything though—the most attractive women get a response about 61% of the time and the least attractive women about 29%.

-The most popular men on dating sites are between 6’3″ and 6’4″. Even controlling for income, height is a major factor. A 5’6″ man would need to earn $237,500 to be as desirable to women as a 6-foot tall man earning $62,500. Tall women don’t have the same advantage—men prefer shorter women.

-Lawyers, Fire fighters, police, and soldiers get far more interest from women on dating apps than any other profession. A waiter would need to earn $200,000 per year to match the desirability of a firefighter making $60,000. Fire fighters are more desirable than executives, managers, accountants, entrepreneurs, salesmen and almost every other profession, except lawyers. Women’s occupations aren’t important to men when it comes to women of similar attractiveness.

-Men and women both want someone like themselves. Even having the same initials can be attractive. Finding someone like themselves is especially true for women. Women even look at things like whether a man uses the same adjectives she does or shared the same number of photos on his profile.

Relationship success

-There is no evidence that any of the above is actually predictive of relationship success. It only highlights what people are generally looking for. It suggests that what people are looking for isn’t as relevant as they think it is. There is no way to predict relationship success, but there is some evidence that you can slightly increase your odds by looking for these “big five” character traits:

• Satisfaction with life: A person satisfied with life without a partner, is more likely to make a good partner.
• Secure attachment style: Someone who can be trusted and is trusting, and doesn’t have difficulty being intimate and affectionate.
• Conscientiousness: Someone who has self-discipline and is efficient, organized and reliable.
• Growth mindset: Someone who tries to improve their talents through hard work and persistence.

What makes people happy

-In terms of geographical locations, people are happiest when near the ocean or other bodies of water. This is number one, by far. A distance second is, mountains, moors and heathland. Here is the rest of the list in descending order :

• Woodland
• Semi-natural grasslands
• Enclosed Farmland
• Freshwater, wetlands, and floodplains
• Suburban/rural developed
• Inland bare ground

-Alcohol gives people a happiness boost, but surprisingly, people don’t report being more unhappy than unusual the next day (only a bit more tired than usual). Alcohol gives the biggest mood boost when doing unpleasant things, like house cleaning, waiting/queuing, self-grooming, etc. The author warns of the dangers of alcohol addiction for some people though.

-When we think about things other than what we’re currently doing, we’re significantly less happy. Even when thinking about pleasant things, people are slightly less happy than they would be if they focused on what they’re doing in the moment.

-People report that the warmer the weather, the happier they are. For example, people are much happier when it’s 24 degrees or higher, compared to 16 to 24 degrees.

By far what makes people happiest is sex. A distant second is theater/dance/concert. Here are eight more “happiness-producing activities” in descending order:

• Exhibition/museum/library
• Sports/running/exercise
• Gardening
• Singing/performing
• Talking/chatting/socializing
• Bird watching/nature watching
• Walking/hiking
• Hunting/fishing

The list goes a lot longer, but the bottom two are browsing the internet and texting/emailing/social media.

The list then goes into negative territory. Sick in bed is by far what makes people the most unhappy. A distant second is working/studying.

Business/entrepreneurial success

-It’s highly beneficial to start a business in a field you’ve been working in for a long time and know a lot about, instead of something you’re less familiar with. The more narrow the field, the better. And the more successful you were in that field as an employee, the better.

-The average age of a business founder is 42-years old. Older founders have a higher probability of creating a successful businesses. The older they are, the better, until their early 60’s (where it begins to decline sharply). This is true in every field, including technology. A 60-year old founder is three-times more likely to create a successful business than a 30-year old.

-Businesses that tend to do the worst are the kind that people “dream” of owning: record stores, arcades and amusement, toy stores, game stores, bookstores, clothing, cosmetics, etc. There’s too much competition in such businesses and it’s difficult for one to set itself apart from the others. Some types of businesses are far more likely to succeed and make the owner rich than others. For example, auto dealerships produce ten-times more wealthy owners than restaurants.

-In business, avoid competition and own the type of business that can’t be dominated by a large company with far more resources. Some types of businesses are protected from competition because of certain laws or specialized knowledge that others don’t have.

Raising children

-Having a higher IQ is an advantage in almost every area of life. The higher the IQ, the better.

-Neighborhoods matter when it comes to raising children, because of exposure to adult role models in the neighborhood. It’s one of the most important factors. Genetics is the most important.

-Genetics is also the most important factor in most, but not all sports. For example, every inch of additional height, doubles a person’s chance of making it to the NBA. Incidentally, NBA players are also more likely to come from middle-class, two-parent families.