“I ended up being an engineer as an undergrad because economics did not make sense to me. I just thought, You know, why would you possibly think that people are perfectly rational decision-making agents and model the economy and their decisions that way? This is absurd.”
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More from Katy Milkman
Insight
Milkman: Pushing through painful goal pursuit fails; making it enjoyable improves outcomes
“The science shows that that's a terrible strategy and that what we actually need to do is try and find a way to make it enjoyable, to pursue our goals.”
Katy MilkmanJan 3, 2025▶ 15:53Understanding the science of fresh starts (Katy Milkman, behavioral economist) | Masters of Scale
AssertionNot yet assessed · timeframe Jan 2030
Milkman: Hiring in batches leads to more diverse teams than one-off hiring
“What we have shown in our research is that when people hire in sets, meaning, you know, let's hire five at a time as, you know, everybody will bring on all our new folks together. We'll hire five people all at once in April instead of sort of one person per mo…”
Katy MilkmanJan 3, 2025▶ 30:55Understanding the science of fresh starts (Katy Milkman, behavioral economist) | Masters of Scale
Insight
Milkman: Fresh starts only provide temporary motivation for one-off actions
“But a big problem with fresh starts is that all they do is they give us a temporary boost in motivation. So they're actually really great moments to do something that's sort of a one and done.”
Katy MilkmanJan 3, 2025▶ 9:51Understanding the science of fresh starts (Katy Milkman, behavioral economist) | Masters of Scale
AssertionSupported
Milkman: 40% of premature US deaths stem from daily behavioral choices
“So this pie chart kind of blew my mind and changed my life because it showed that 40% of premature deaths are due to behaviors we could change, daily decisions we make.”
Katy MilkmanJan 3, 2025▶ 7:15Understanding the science of fresh starts (Katy Milkman, behavioral economist) | Masters of Scale
AssertionSupported
Milkman: Mondays and new months serve as powerful psychological fresh starts
“Actually every Monday seems to be a very powerful fresh start when we look at our data, and they come around conveniently once a week, so that's a great one to peg yourself to the start of a new month also seems to do it for some people”
Katy MilkmanJan 3, 2025▶ 16:21Understanding the science of fresh starts (Katy Milkman, behavioral economist) | Masters of Scale
Insight
Milkman: Self-nudging works by making the lowest-friction default path the healthy choice
“We can think about this Powerful nudge and how we can use it as a snudge by just creating frictions that are aligned with making the lazy and easy path the one that is healthy and beneficial in the long run.”
Katy MilkmanJan 3, 2025▶ 20:29Understanding the science of fresh starts (Katy Milkman, behavioral economist) | Masters of Scale
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