More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
November 10 - November 19, 2024
It is the source of creativity and, further along the spectrum, madness;
It is also why we are never happy for very long.
new hypothesis arose: dopamine activity is not a marker of pleasure. It is a reaction to the unexpected—to possibility and anticipation.
That happy error is what launches dopamine into action. It’s not the extra time or the extra money themselves. It’s the thrill of the unexpected good
It’s the pleasure of anticipation—the possibility of something unfamiliar and better.
Dopaminergic excitement (that is, the thrill of anticipation) doesn’t last forever, because eventually the future becomes the present. The thrilling mystery of the unknown becomes the boring familiarity of the everyday, at which point dopamine’s job is done, and the letdown sets in.
Passion rises when we dream of a world of possibility, and fades when we are confronted by reality.
the peripersonal space, and for that the brain is controlled by a host of chemicals concerned with experience in the here and now. But when the brain is engaged with the extrapersonal space, one chemical exercises more control than all the others, the chemical associated with anticipation and possibility: dopamine.
Dopamine has a very specific job: maximizing resources that will be available to us in the future; the pursuit of better things.
The novelty that triggers dopamine doesn’t go on forever. When it comes to love, the loss of passionate romance will always happen eventually, and then comes a choice. We can transition to a love that’s fed by a day-to-day appreciation of that other person in the here and now, or we can end the relationship and go in search of another roller coaster ride.
From dopamine’s point of view, having things is uninteresting. It’s only getting things that matters. If you live under a bridge, dopamine makes you want a tent. If you live in a tent, dopamine makes you want a house. If you live in the most expensive mansion in the world, dopamine makes you want a castle on the moon. Dopamine has no standard for good, and seeks no finish line. The dopamine circuits in the brain can be stimulated only by the possibility of whatever is shiny and new, never mind how perfect things are at the moment. The dopamine motto is “More.”
Dopamine isn’t the pleasure molecule, after all. It’s the anticipation molecule. To enjoy the things we have, as opposed to the things that are only possible, our brains must transition from future-oriented dopamine to present-oriented chemicals, a collection of neurotransmitters we call the Here and Now molecules, or the H&Ns. Most people have heard of the H&Ns. They include serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins (your brain’s version of morphine), and a class of chemicals called endocannabinoids (your brain’s version of marijuana).
As opposed to the pleasure of anticipation via dopamine, these chemicals give us pleasure from sensation and emotion.
When H&N circuits are activated, we are prompted to experience the real world around us, and dopamine is suppressed; when dopamine circuits are activated, we move into a future of possibilities, and H&Ns are suppressed.
It’s just that his personality is primarily dopaminergic: he enjoys anticipation and planning more than doing.
dopamine is the molecule of obsessive yearning, the chemicals most associated with long-term relationships are oxytocin and vasopressin. Oxytocin is more active in women and vasopressin in men.
Passion deferred is passion sustained.
Dopamine tends to shut down once fantasy becomes reality, and dopamine is the driving chemical of romantic love.
Dopamine responded not to reward, but to reward prediction error: the actual reward minus the expected reward.
there’s a big difference between wanting something and liking it.
Dopamine circuits don’t process experience in the real world, only imaginary future possibilities. For many people it’s a letdown. They’re so attached to dopaminergic stimulation that they flee the present and take refuge in the comfortable world of their own imagination. “What will we do tomorrow?” they ask themselves as they chew their food, oblivious to the fact that they’re not even noticing this meal they had so eagerly anticipated. To travel hopefully is better than to arrive is the motto of the dopamine enthusiast.
The future isn’t real. It’s made up of a bundle of possibilities that exist only in our minds. Those possibilities tend to be idealized—we usually don’t imagine a mediocre outcome. We tend to think about the best of all possible worlds, and that makes the future more attractive. On the other hand, the present is real. It’s concrete. It’s experienced, not imagined, and that requires a different set of brain chemicals—the H&Ns, the here-and-now neurotransmitters. Dopamine makes us want things with a passion, but it’s the H&Ns that allow us to appreciate them: the flavors, colors, textures, and
...more
The desire circuit is, so to speak, just a salesman.
Buyer’s remorse is the failure of the H&N experience to compensate for the loss of dopaminergic arousal. If we made a wise purchase, it’s possible that strong H&N gratification will make up for the loss of the dopamine thrill.
Alternatively, another way to avoid buyer’s remorse is to purchase something that triggers more dopaminergic expectation, for example, a tool, like a new computer that will boost productivity, or a new jacket that will make you look amazing the next time you go out.
chase the dopamine high by buying more, (2) avoid the dopamine crash by buying less, or (3) strengthen the ability to transition from dopamine desire to H&N liking. In no case, though, is there any guarantee that the things we so desperately want will be things that we will enjoy having. Wanting and liking are produced by two different systems in the brain, so we often don’t like the things we want.
an addict, drugs are more important. At least that’s the way it feels.
There’s no partying there. There’s no enjoyment. This is about relieving the pain. People have this mistaken notion that you get high. What you’re really getting is relief from the low. This is why, even if an addict uses so much cocaine (or heroin or alcohol or marijuana) that it no longer leads to feeling high, he will continue to use
Now let’s say it’s Saturday night, and an addict’s brain is expecting the usual Saturday-night “treat,” cocaine, but it doesn’t come. Just like the croissant-deprived office worker, the drug-deprived addict will feel resentful and deprived.
When an expected reward fails to materialize, the dopamine system shuts down. In scientific terms, when the dopamine system is at rest, it fires at a leisurely three to five times per second. When it’s excited, it zooms up to twenty to thirty times per second. When an expected reward fails to materialize, the dopamine firing rate drops to zero, and that feels terrible. That’s why a dopamine shutdown makes you feel resentful and deprived. It’s how a recovering drug addict feels every day as he struggles to get clean and sober. It takes an enormous amount of strength, determination, and support
...more
DESIRE IS PERSISTENT, BUT HAPPINESS IS FLEETING Giving in to craving doesn’t necessarily lead to pleasure because ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Impulsive behavior occurs when too much value is placed on immediate pleasure and not enough on long-term consequences. Desire dopamine overpowers the more rational parts of the brain. We make choices that we know are not in our best interest, but we feel powerless to resist. It’s as if our free will has been compromised by an overwhelming urge for immediate pleasure; perhaps it’s a bag of potato chips when we’re on a diet, or splurging on an expensive night out that we can’t really afford.
The only point of smoking cigarettes is to get addicted so one can experience the pleasure of relieving the unpleasant feeling of craving, like a man who carries around a rock all day because it feels so good when he puts it down.
Addiction arises from the chemical cultivation of desire. The delicate system that tells us what we like or dislike is no match for the raw power of dopaminergic compulsion. The feeling of wanting becomes overwhelming and utterly detached from whether the object of desire is anything we really care for, is good for us, or might kill us.
Prod dopamine too hard and too long, and its power comes roaring out. Once it has taken charge of a life, it is difficult to tame.
the same as drug addiction, but they have things in common. As with drug addiction, people who become trapped in a cycle of excessive pornography use spend more and more time pursuing this activity—sometimes many hours every day. They abandon other activities so they can focus on adult internet sites. Sexual relations with their partners tend to become less frequent and less satisfying.
Video games are about progress. They’re about making the future better than the present. Gamers progress through levels while increasing their strength and abilities. It’s a dopamine dream come true.
The dopamine desire circuit is powerful. It focuses attention, motivates, and thrills. It has a profound influence over the choices we make. Yet it isn’t all-powerful. Addicts get clean. Dieters lose weight. Sometimes we switch off the TV, get off the couch, and go for a run. What kind of circuit in the brain is powerful enough to oppose dopamine? Dopamine is. Dopamine opposing dopamine. The circuit that opposes the desire circuit might be called the dopamine control circuit.
Tapping into desire dopamine energy, he spends hours on the internet, poring over car review sites and developing negotiation strategies. He wants to know every detail he can so he can maximize the value of his purchase. When he sits down with the car dealer, he is so well prepared that nothing will take him by surprise. He feels good: he has dominated the car-buying situation by mastering all available information.
It’s fun figuring out things, and it’s fun carrying out the strategies developed to “game” the intricacies of car buying and the daily trip to work. Why?
Dopamine encourages us to maximize our resources by rewarding us when we do so—the act of doing something well, of making our future a better, safer place, gives us a little dopamine “buzz.”
The entrepreneur who develops the next killer technology in his garage is often surprised to find that the world isn’t beating a path to his door.
Success takes years of hard work and so many revisions to the original idea that it’s barely recognizable by the time it gets to market.
not enough to just imagine the future. To bring an idea to fruition we must struggle with the uncompromising realities of the physical world. We need not ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Hunger is an H&N phenomenon, an immediate experience, not an anticipatory, dopamine-driven one. Manipulate hunger, or some other sensory experience, and you affect the value of the reward earned through work. But it’s dopamine that makes the work possible at all: no dopamine, no effort.
The ability to put forth effort is dopaminergic. The quality of that effort can be influenced by any number of other factors, but without dopamine, there is no effort at all.
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.
Under normal circumstances, robust self-efficacy is a valuable asset. Sometimes it can act like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Having a confident expectation of success can make obstacles melt before your eyes.
How does this work? How does a confident expectation of success cause others to give way, even when it seems like it’s not in their interest to do so? It’s usually because of things that are happening outside of their conscious awareness.
confederate. Did they like her? Did they feel comfortable with her? It didn’t matter if the confederate took a dominant or submissive posture. Participants who took the complementary posture not only liked the confederates more, they also felt more comfortable with them compared to the participants who mirrored the confederates.
