Having It All Audiobook Review: An Economist Gives Women a Decision Framework for Life
Less “lean in,” more utility function: a practical framework for designing a life you actually want.
My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5 stars: Great)
- Author: Corinne Low, PhD
- Category: Nonfiction, Women’s Issues, Economics
- Published: 2025
- Runtime: 9 hours
There’s no disingenuous “you can have it all if you just try harder” vibe here. It’s more like: define what you care about the most, model it like an optimization problem, and make resource decisions accordingly. You won’t get it “all,” but you’ll get something more important: a life that brings you satisfaction. (I was going to say joy, but that doesn’t fit the vibe here.)
Corinne Low is an economics professor, and she doesn’t shy away from the academic vocabulary (think utility functions, home production, BATNA, and more) to precisely discuss building an intentional life. If that framing sounds cold for a topic this personal, it’s actually the opposite. Having someone hand you a rational decision framework for a subject this emotionally loaded turns out to be enormously useful.
The core idea is utility maximization: different people want different things, and the first step to a satisfying life is getting honest about what you actually want, not what you’re supposed to want. From there, Low works through career selection, partnership dynamics, division of household labor, negotiation, and how to think about leisure time, all through the same structured lens. The takeaway is a mental model for making life decisions. A few months out, I’m still finding myself returning to her frameworks.
One caveat: I found this book disorganized at times, and the first half is harder to follow than it should be. The author moves between population-level research data and direct reader advice, and the chapter structure doesn’t always make the thread obvious. The second half is tighter and more actionable.
And a flag: this is written squarely for professional women, with examples and baseline assumptions reflecting that context. People in other career paths may still find the concepts useful, but the book may be less relatable.
Put It To Work
- Define your utility function before making major decisions. Low’s central argument is that most dissatisfaction comes from optimizing for the wrong things. Before a career move, a relationship decision, or even how you spend a weekend, it’s worth asking: what do I actually want the outcome of my life to look like? Work backwards from that.
- Evaluate your home production split explicitly. If the division of household labor isn’t working, Low recommends tracking both partners’ activities in 15-minute increments for a week to establish a baseline, then dividing responsibilities cleanly. The goal is that one person owns a task entirely, so the other isn’t carrying mental load even when they’re not executing.
- Know your BATNA. Whether you’re negotiating with an employer or partner, or planning your own path, knowing what your best alternative looks like if the arrangement doesn’t work gives you real leverage and keeps you from accepting terms that don’t actually serve you.
- Trade money for time more creatively. Low pushes past the obvious (hire a cleaner) into more useful territory: outsource organizing photos, shopping for the kids’ clothing, or other tasks you’d never think to delegate. The question isn’t “is this conventional?” It’s “does paying someone else to do this free up time for something that matters more to me?”
- Don’t invest in things that don’t matter to you. Another valuable take on trading money for time: think about actions that will truly bring you joy, like hanging family photos on the wall, and pay to get those done. Don’t invest in things that don’t fit your ideal life.
The Audiobook Experience
★★★★☆
Narrated by Yael Rizowy. She reads this with the kind of engaged, genuine investment that makes it feel author-narrated, while bringing the pacing and control of a professional. For a nonfiction book on a topic this dense, that’s a winning combination.
Medium multitasking potential. The first half in particular requires attention, partly because of the disorganized flow. Beyond that, you may want to pause to take notes on the advice sections.
Audio or print? Audio works well here, but if you’re the type to annotate or return to specific frameworks, a physical copy alongside would serve you.
Read It or Skip It?
Read it if: You’re a professional woman feeling pressed for time, unclear on your priorities, or looking for a structured way to think about career and family decisions.
Skip it if: You’re looking for something warm and narrative-driven, or you’re early enough in your career that the concepts feel too abstract to apply yet.
Related: Fair Play by Eve Rodsky for a practical system for dividing household labor.
Where to Listen
I only recommend audiobooks and resources I’ve personally experienced. This post contains affiliate links — if you purchase through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
