Who Decides Value And Why You Believe It | Guest: Toby Stuart

In this episode of The Brilliant Podcast, host Tristan Ahumada talks with Toby Stuart, professor at UC Berkeley and author, about status dynamics and why anointment quietly shapes nearly every decision we make.

They examine how social status, endorsements, social proof, and algorithms influence markets, media, startups, venture capital, and even scientific recognition. Using examples that span wine critics, art dealers, Silicon Valley investors, AI platforms, and product reviews, this conversation explains why value often shifts overnight without the product changing at all.

Topics include cultural markets, inequality, media trust, affiliate marketing, Amazon reviews, status games in startups, AI-driven recommendation systems, and why merit alone rarely succeeds without recognition.

This episode is less about motivation and more about understanding the invisible forces already steering your choices.

Listen carefully. You’re part of this system too.

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Toby E. Stuart is the Leo Helzel Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He is Faculty Director of the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program; Faculty Director of the Institute for Business Innovation; and Distinguished Teaching Fellow. Previously, Stuart was Charles Edward Wilson Professor at Harvard Business School; Art Samberg Professor and Faculty Director of the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University’s Business School; and Fred Steingraber-A.T. Kearney Professor of Leadership & Strategy at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He has also served on the faculty of the Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship group at MIT Sloan School of Management. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He holds an A.B., summa cum laude, in economics from Carleton College. At HBS and CBS, Stuart led the required courses in Entrepreneurship and in Corporate Strategy, respectively.

Connect with Toby: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toby-stuart-90a37432/

Website: https://tobystuart.com/

Get his book: https://www.amazon.com/Anointed-Extraordinary-Effects-Social-Winner-Take-Most-ebook/dp/B0DV6QWCVQ

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anointed-toby-stuart/1146889900?ean=9781668001875

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