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June 5 - July 24, 2021
Dopamine has a very specific job: maximizing resources that will be available to us in the future; the pursuit of better things.
Then Skinner tried something different. He set up an experiment in which the number of presses needed to release a pellet changed randomly. Now the pigeon never knew when the food would come. Every reward was unexpected. The birds became excited. They pecked faster. Something was spurring them on to greater efforts. Dopamine, the molecule of surprise, had been harnessed, and the scientific foundation of the slot machine was born.
The transition is difficult, and when the world presents an easy way out of a difficult task, we tend to take it.
His idea of satisfaction is not satisfaction at all. It’s pursuit, which is driven by dopamine, the molecule that cultivates perpetual dissatisfaction.
Waiting prolongs the most exciting phase of love. The bittersweet feelings of distance and denial are the business end of a chemical reaction.
Passion deferred is passion sustained.
This dopamine circuit evolved to promote behaviors that lead to survival and reproduction, or, to put it more plainly, to help us get food and sex, and to win competitions.
The speed with which alcohol gets into the brain determines how high a drinker feels. It’s the total amount of alcohol consumed, regardless of whether it’s fast or slow, that determines the level of intoxication. Inexperienced drinkers get the two confused.
When an expected reward fails to materialize, the dopamine system shuts down.
Giving in to craving doesn’t necessarily lead to pleasure because wanting is different from liking. Dopamine makes promises that it is in no position to keep.
The dopamine-depleted rats didn’t increase their work at all. In fact, they pressed less than they had before. They simply gave up.
We need to believe we can succeed before we are able to succeed. This influences tenacity. We have greater tenacity when we encounter early success.
They know you are more likely to stick with it if you see that you are capable of doing it. Scientists call this self-efficacy.
As one doctor described it, amphetamine allowed them to be “not only capable of performing their duties, but to actually enjoy them.” In other words, if you don’t like cooking or cleaning, it helps to be on speed.
Success inspired confidence; confidence produced success.
Willpower is like a muscle. It becomes fatigued with use, and after a fairly short period of time, it gives out.
“Resisting temptation seems to have produced a psychic cost, in the sense that afterward participants were more inclined to give up easily in the face of frustration.”
one of the cardinal rules of creative writing is to turn off your inner censor when creating the first draft. If you’re lucky, things will tumble out from your unconscious that will resonate in the unconscious of your readers, and your story will strike deep.
Choose a problem that’s important to you, one that you have a strong desire to solve. The greater the desire, the more likely it is that the problem will show up in a dream.
For some, it doesn’t matter. The joy of creation is the most intense joy they know, whether they are artists, scientists, prophets, or entrepreneurs.
Mental flexibility—the ability to change one’s behavior in response to changing circumstances—is also an ingredient in how we measure intelligence.
Transitions and high performers
The hedonistic paradox states that people who seek happiness for themselves will not find it, but people who help others will. Altruism has been associated with greater well-being, health, and longevity.
The effect of loss was greater than the effect of gain.
Bigger change means more stress.
I learned very quickly that when you emigrate, you lose the crutches that have been your support; you must begin from zero, because the past is erased with a single stroke and no one cares where you’re from or what you did before. —Isabel Allende, writer
