#531 - Russ Roberts - An Economist’s Guide To Life’s Big Decisions

Russ Roberts is an economist, a research fellow at Stanford University, an author and a podcaster. Economics promised us a model which works for all of life's decisions. From what to buy for lunch to investing in a company. But when you're faced with decisions like where to live, how many children to have, whether to get married or what sort of person you want to be, it falls short. Thankfully Russ has a new toolkit. Expect to learn why Charles Darwin made a checklist before marriage which said his wife was slightly better than a dog, why the decision about whether to have children is so difficult to predict, whether rationality is totally incompatible with the decisions that define us, why happiness is overrated as an optimising function, whether tradition is any use and much more... Sponsors: Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours at https://www.drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get 15% discount on all VERSO’s products at https://ver.so/modernwisdom (use code: MW15) Extra Stuff: Buy Wild Problems - https://amzn.to/3qWTzRa Follow Russ on Twitter - https://twitter.com/EconTalker  Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom Get in touch. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices