The modern world has hacked our reward systems by maximizing the addictiveness of foods and chemicals and making them readily available. Social media platforms hijack our desire for social validation, resulting in “social obesity.” Video games, streaming platforms, digital pornography, and online shopping all provide us with new temptations that make it harder for us to make deliberate decisions about how we spend our time. The problem with the modern world is that it optimizes for our drives, not for our values. Though the world is getting more addictive, our best tool to counter it is still
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