Dr. Maya Shankar: The Mindset Shift You Need When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned | Human Behavior | YAPClassic
episode
Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha: Entrepreneurship and Self-Improvement Podcast
1h 4m
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Yap, gangs, our lives are shaped by thousands of decisions, from the big decisions to the small ones and even the ones that we don't realize we're making. But imagine being able to understand the hidden forces behind those choices that we make so we can navigate our paths with more confidence and clarity.
What was Dr. Maya Shankar's journey with the violin?
In this Yap Classic episode, we're revisiting my conversation with Dr. Maya Shankar, a renowned cognitive scientist and former behavior science advisor in the White House. Maya has spent her career studying how emotions, identity, and subtle nudges influence the paths and decisions that we make. Together, we unpack how to let go of outdated identities, overcome mental traps like the sunk cost fallacy, and design environments that support smarter, more intentional decision-making. Yeah, fam, I guarantee you're going to want to take notes on this one. Here's my sit-down with Dr. Maya Shankar. Hey Maya, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Hey Hala, it's so lovely to be here with you. Yeah, me too.
I'm really excited for this conversation, human behavior and the science of decision-making, the science of change.
How does behavioral and cognitive science help in decision-making?
These are all things that I'm really passionate about. I love talking about them on my podcast. And so you're super impressive. You know, you worked at the White House. You worked at the United Nations. You work for Google now and you lead their behavioral science teams there. So really interesting stuff. But we always like to start from the beginning. So let's talk about you growing up. And from my understanding, you were super talented at the violin and the violin was essentially your whole life.
What is the sunk cost fallacy and why is it important?
But when you were 15 years old, you had a very traumatic hand injury that kind of changed the way that you thought your life would be thereafter. And you had to kind of switch careers. So talk to us about what it was like for you as a child, a teenager, how you got into the violin and then maybe how you transition to some of the stuff you're working on now.
Absolutely. Yeah.
How did Dr. Maya Shankar impact policy at the White House?
So violin, as you mentioned, was my entire life as a kid. When I was six years old, my mom went up to our attic and brought down my grandmother's violin that she had brought with her all the way from India when she immigrated here in the 70s. And I think my mom had just meant to show me the instrument I don't think she expected that I would be instantly captivated by it but I was and I really took to it and my mom says that she never had to ask me to practice it was just one of those genuine passions that I had as a child and I can't say that for many of the other things I was asked to do in school so she knew that it was very rare and then when I was nine years old I things started to get a little bit more serious, and I was starting to realize, hey, maybe this violin thing could be my life, right?
Like, maybe this could be a career. And so I ended up auditioning for the Juilliard School of Music in New York, and I was accepted into their pre-college program, and that began weekly trips every Saturday from Connecticut to New York, in which my mom and I would get up at 4.30 in the go to New York on the train, and I'd spend about 10 hours in the day studying the violin. And then, as you can imagine, like with the intensity of that spirit, things started to get even more serious. And then in high school, Itzhak Perlman, who's the greatest violinist of our time, invited me to be his private violin student. And that was an incredible vote of confidence for me because I think, like so many, when we're in competitive environments, it can be very intimidating.
What is the concept of nudging in behavioral science?
You're not sure if you have what it takes to succeed. And him taking me on as a student, I think, really helped me appreciate, oh, wow, maybe I could actually be a violinist and go pro. So unfortunately, what happened is that when I was 15, I was in summer music camp. I woke up early, probably didn't warm up as much as I should have. And I overstretched my finger on a single note and heard a pop. And it turns out I had torn tendons in my hand.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:11–0:27
2
What was Dr. Maya Shankar's journey with the violin?
0:27–1:14
3
How does behavioral and cognitive science help in decision-making?
1:14–1:42
4
What is the sunk cost fallacy and why is it important?
1:42–2:02
5
How did Dr. Maya Shankar impact policy at the White House?
2:02–3:35
6
What is the concept of nudging in behavioral science?
3:35–4:02
7
Why is it difficult for people to change their minds?
4:02–4:15
8
What practical nudging tactics can we apply in daily life?
4:15–1:04:41
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha: Entrepreneurship and Self-Improvement Podcast
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