HOW TO CHANGE: Science-Backed Tips for Becoming Your Best Self (Katy Milkman & Daniel Pink)

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Science, Society & Culture, Social Sciences, Education

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Katy Milkman was a newly minted professor at Wharton, she came across a statistic that stopped her cold: 40 percent of premature deaths result from personal behaviors we can change. Katy decided to do something about that, and for the next decade, she conducted groundbreaking research into the science of achieving lasting behavior change. In “How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” she shares what she’s learned. The Next Big Idea Club named “How to Change” one of the best books of the year, and in this episode, Katy sits down with our curator Daniel Pink to tell him why a change in the weather can help you save money, how Harry Potter got her in better shape, and what an accidental breakthrough in mathematics reveals about boosting your self-confidence.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rufus Griskym, and this is the next big idea.
0:10.0	Today, is there a scientific path to changing your life?
0:30.0	It's March 1994, another muggy day in Kibisgain, Florida, where Andre Agassi is waiting at a waterfront restaurant to meet a man who says he can save Andre's floundering tennis career.
0:46.0	Andre, with his shoulder-length hair, dangly earrings and jean shorts, is one of the sport's most recognizable players.
0:53.0	He's also one of the most disappointing.
0:56.0	No one denies his incredible natural talent. His forehand is fearsome. He glides around the court like he's on rollerplates.
1:03.0	He should be one of the most dominant players in the game. Instead, he keeps coming up short, losing easy matches, making stupid mistakes, falling in the rankings, getting dumped by his coach.
1:14.0	Although he's only 23, there are whispers that he's already passed his prime.
1:19.0	If he has any hope of turning things around, he needs to change and fast, which is why he's at this swanky Italian restaurant waiting to meet Brad Gilbert.
1:29.0	Brad is a fellow pro who's looking to transition into coaching.
1:33.0	Stylistically, he is Andre's opposite. His game is scrappy, devoid of finesse. He lacks Andre's grace, but he wins anyway, and Andre wants to know how.
1:45.0	Once they're seated, Andre's manager turns to Brad and says, we want to get your take on Andre's game.
1:51.0	Brad gulps his beer and looks across the table at Andre.
1:54.0	You always try to be perfect, he says.
1:58.0	And you always fall short. You try to hit a winner on every shot when just being steady would be enough.
2:04.0	You don't have to be the best in the world every time you go out there. You just have to be better than one guy.
2:11.0	Instead of succeeding, make him fail.
2:14.0	Brad goes on like this for 15 minutes. Finally, he excuses himself and gets up to go find the bathroom.
2:20.0	At which point, Andre turns to his manager and says, that's our guy.
2:25.0	Several months later, Andre enters the US open, he's unseated, no one expects him to get past the first few rounds, but he's got a different game plan this time, the Brad Gilbert game plan.
2:36.0	Like a high school bully, he finds his opponent's weaknesses, sloppy second serves, lazy backhand, slow feet, and he exploits them mercilessly.
2:46.0	He reaches the final, facing off against the number four seed, a talented young German player named Michael Steak.
	...

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