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Daniel Gilbert is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His research with Tim Wilson on "affective forecasting" investigates how and how well people can make predictions about[…]

Once Daniel Gilbert left Evanston, Illinois, luck took over.

Question: Where are you from and how has that shaped you?

Dan Gilbert: Well I was born in Ithaca, New York. I grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Then I moved to Denver, Colorado. Then I went to Princeton, New Jersey. Then I went to Austin, Texas. And here I am in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I was about 15½ years old when I decided that I was smarter than my high school and I shouldn’t be attending. So I stuck out my thumb and started hitch-hiking around the country. Ended up in Denver, Colorado where I got married and had a child. I became a science fiction writer. One day I decided I might benefit from a course in writing at the local community college. So I jumped on a bus and went down there to sign up for one; but I was a little late and the course was full, so I … they said psychology was open. So I wandered into psychology.

Recorded on: 6/12/07

 


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