The most popular edition of this newsletter yet was a list of my favorite things, which I shared at the end of 2021.
Since making decisions informed by data is my shtick, naturally, I’m bringing back the “favorite things” theme for the end of 2022.
I hope this year’s list of my favorites will help you discover some wonderful new reads, listens and laughs, and I wish you and yours a fantastic holiday season!
My Favorite Book (and Book List) of 2022
Book: “Happier Hour” by Cassie Holmes
Some amazing behavioral science books came out in 2022. That made it hard to pick a favorite! But Happier Hour by Cassie Holmes did more for me than any other title this year, helping me better prioritize activities that were true sources of joy. It’s a book about how you can best spend your limited hours to maximize happiness, and it’s a gem.
Book List: If you’re interested in more than a single book recommendation, Behavioral Scientist recently published my favorite book list of 2022. And perhaps my shelf will provide additional inspiration…
My Favorite Article of 2022
“All the Personal-Finance Books are Wrong” by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic
This Atlantic article chronicles Yale economist James Choi’s deep dive into why the personal finance advice that self-help books offer so rarely matches what academic theory would suggest is “best” and what scholars can learn from the mismatch.
My Favorite Cartoon of 2022
“Life Isn’t Linear” from the best team around — the brilliant Liz and Mollie
Liz illustrates the biggest and baddest biases behavioral scientists have uncovered (follow Liz and Mollie on Instagram @lizandmollie).
My Favorite Research Paper of 2022
“Virtual Communication Curbs Creative Idea Generation” by Melanie S. Brucks and Jonathan Levav in Nature
This paper shows that when we work together in Zoom meetings rather than in person, we’re less effective at generating creative ideas (and this holds across cultures). The silver lining is that we’re just as good at picking the best idea to pursue whether we're working together online or in person. This suggests there’s value in being quite deliberate about the kinds of group work we’ll do together IRL versus online.
Runner Up: “The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion” by Christine Exley and Judd Kessler in the Quarterly Journal of Economics shows that starting as early as sixth grade, women who perform just as well as men on tasks related to science and math evaluate themselves less positively.
My Favorite Podcast Episode of 2022
“The Life and Legacy of Sidney Poitier” from The Daily
This beautiful episode of The New York Times’ popular Daily podcast offers reflections on the life and legacy of Sidney Poitier, the acclaimed Black actor whose excellence and grace reshaped opportunities for minorities in Hollywood and beyond.
Times culture critic Wesley Morris tells Poitier’s story poignantly, explaining how he “managed to affect what we see, how we relate to people, who we think we are, who we should aspire to be.”
My Favorite Source of Comic Relief from 2022
“CDC Announces Plan to Send Every U.S. Household Pamphlet on Probabilistic Thinking” in The Onion
Wouldn’t that be something? I’m sure it would solve all our problems ... If this doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will!
Runner Up: “A Completely Valid List of Reasons I Can’t Exercise Today” in the Washington Post by Bob Brody (enough said).
I hope you’ll enjoy exploring some of my favorite things from 2022.
That’s all for this month’s newsletter. See you in the New Year!
Katy Milkman, PhD
Professor at Wharton, Host of Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, and Bestselling Author of How to Change
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