Should we separate decisions related to love and money, approaching finance and career-related decisions solely in a rational way while relying more on our emotions in the personal domain? Perhaps it's time to start using both our heads and hearts together when making life's most significant decisions.

Myra Strober is an emerita Professor at the Schools of Education and Business at Stanford University. She also sits on the board of the journal Feminist Economics and is the former president of the International Association for Feminist Economics 9. Abby Davisson is a social innovation leader and career development expert. She is a senior leader on global retailer Gap Inc.'s Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) team and is President of Gap Foundation. She is also an alumni career advisor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Together they wrote the book “Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions,” exploring how to navigate life’s most consequential and daunting decisions.

Myra, Abby, and Greg discuss the importance of incorporating decision-making into an interdisciplinary curriculum at an early stage for students to equip them with the skills to make optimal strategic choices while avoiding the need to compromise their professional or personal lives.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

The similarities of finding a business and a life partner

17:08: [Myra Strober] People who say that you need to make love decisions with your heart are not entirely wrong. Your heart surely needs to be part of the decision, or your gut, or however you want to think about it. And you may find a co-founder for a business who works well with you, but you wouldn't like to spend your evenings and weekends with them. You wouldn't like to go on vacation with them. And that all works fine, but it doesn't work fine if this is your life partner. So certainly, before you have any conversations of any depth, you need to be sure that you're linked to this person in some way through your heart, through your gut, that you're excited about this person in some way.

On making decisions you won’t regret

16:03: [Abby Davisson] What we advocate and why we have a whole framework around decision-making is to slow down and bring in other elements to that decision that can help you make a decision you are less likely to regret.

The huge impact of your work decisions

12:40: [Myra Strober] The work decisions that you make, which you might assume are only work decisions, have a huge impact on your family. And if you're going to make a major work decision, you need to communicate your ideas with the people who matter to you.

Humans and their short-term bias

39:38: [Abby Davisson] Humans have a short-term bias, and we are much more likely to overweight the positive or negative consequences of decisions in the short term.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

Guest Profile:

Myra Strober

Faculty Profile at Stanford University
Myra Strober on LinkedIn

Abby Davisson

Their Work:

Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions - Myra Strober and Abby Davisson
Sharing the Work: What My Family and Career Taught Me About Breaking Through (and Holding the Door Open for Others) - Myra Strober

269. Balancing Personal Life and Career Decision Making feat. Myra Strober and Abby Davisson

unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc