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Social media is the fast food of socialization.
Porn is the fast food of intimacy.
Video games are the fast food of achievement.
Netflix is the fast food of entertainment.
Fast food itself is a combination of fat, sugar, and salt – ingredients that used to be incredibly scarce – that are combined and tested in infinite different ways to see which keeps consumers coming back for more.
In order to understand this cheap dopamine epidemic we're going through, we need a short history lesson.
One way societies can be categorized is by its techno-economic base. In other words, the basic means of production (i.e. the horse-drawn plow vs machines) that the society uses to manage its basic needs. There are 5 of them:
- Foraging – hunting and gathering. Men hunted, women gathered.
- Horticultural – Simple planting. Women produced most of the food, and the society's deities became female.
- Agrarian – Animal drawn plows. Women couldn't continue farming due to an increase in miscarriages, so they're roles changed, and the society's deities became men. 80% of Agrarian societies relied on male slave labor.
This marks a massive shift in culture. Since plowing was a Darwinian disadvantage for women to do, they shifted roles and began to assume more "traditional" roles of taking care of the home and family. Because of the plow, there was now an abundance of food, so men had more free time to contemplate and pursue new interests. (This is when writing and mathematics were invented.)
The last 2 bases after agrarian were industrial and informational.
Note that the homo genus species emerged around 2 million years ago, while homo sapiens emerged around 300,000 years ago. The industrial age started 300 years ago (1 one-thousandth of human evolution), meaning that our minds were clearly not adapted for what came next.
As the industrial age progressed, fat, sugar, and salt became less and less scarce. We could trade for salt in coastal areas and produce fat and sugar at a rapid rate.
Between 1920-1950, things continued to change. Assembly lines and 9-5 jobs became a thing (thanks Henry Ford) and how humans work began to shift into the workforce we know today. In short, humans had more money and potential.
After 1950, fast food chains started popping up. Then, the information age came online. The Golden Age Of Television allowed for more spread of information.
Then, a bit later, the internet. Information began to grow and spread like wildfire. Continuing to fast forward and we have Google, Facebook, and other soon-to-be massive companies competing in a race to the top.
These weren't all bad at first, but the desire for power caused technology to evolve with rather poor incentives. Everything was so new. It had never been done before. Who would have guessed it would have turned out so destructive?
All of these massive companies across all domains, not just the internet, were trying to "win the game" by any means possible, even if that was at the sacrifice of their customer's well-being.
Fat, sugar, and salt.
Scarce resources that humans aren't adapted to have in abundance. We're adapted for survival. Scarce ingredients, when found, spurt dopamine into our brain to signal that we've found something to aid in our survival.
Once companies discovered this mechanism, they could now test and create combinations of these ingredients that maximize pleasure for their customers and keep them coming back for more. Addiction.
Quadruple patty burgers. Queso chalupa taco burritos with a hyper-palatable 48oz super-sized soda on the side.
The internet companies followed suit. They adopted an advertising model for monetization and soon found that polarizing and inflammatory headlines led to capturing the most attention. Now all they had to do was serve more of what users "liked" to an instantly accessible screen. Hello, "For You" page!
- Sugar = quick & desirable promises
- Salt = absolutistic takes
The internet companies test combinations of these and the algorithm feeds us as much as we want until we're mentally obese. Fear-induced content spurts dopamine into our brains and narrows our thinking because we "need" the information for later survival.
Now, here we are.
Quick money, quick sex, quick knowledge, quick food, quick entertainment.
A ticking time bomb that feels good at first but feels terrible later.
But there's more to the story.
Dopamine isn't all bad.
We are living through a Second Renaissance after all (the Renaissance came after the Dark Ages). The internet and social media, for conscious and intentional individuals seeking truth and growth, is the key to doing work you love and taking back control of your life.
The Molecule Of More – How Dopamine Works
In a broad sense, saying something is “important” is another way of saying it’s linked to dopamine. Why? Because among the many things it does, dopamine is an early-warning system for the appearance of anything that can help us survive. – Daniel Z. Lieberman
Most people don't understand dopamine.
And since they don't understand it, they have difficulty noticing poor behavior and correcting it in a way that is beneficial to their development.
Dopamine isn't the pleasure molecule.
Dopamine is the molecule of more.
But dopamine isn't the only neurotransmitter that provides feedback based on our behavior and perception.
There are 2 types of neurotransmitters:
1) The Down Chemicals or the "Here & Now's"
When you look down, what do you see? Everything inside your peripersonal space. Things within reach. Things you can control.
The "here and now" chemicals associated with what's in your immediate space allow you to savor, enjoy, or fight and run away from what you are experiencing.
Oxytocin, norepinephrine, adrenaline, serotonin, endorphins, and endocannabinoids.
2) The Up Chemical: Dopamine
Look outside. Look to the sky. Look on the internet. Look through the shop windows. Look to your memories of a fun vacation.
What do all of these things have in common?
Things you don't have.
Things that are in your extrapersonal space.
Dopamine motivates you to pursue, to control, and to possess what you don't have, but want, because it could be useful for your survival. Well, maybe not now, but definitely in the past. More resources. More sex and offspring. A horse and a sword to navigate harsh terrain and discover even more in unknown lands.
So, what's the issue? And what do we do?
The issue is that we are so dopamine-overloaded by the abundance of information forged by game theoretic principles that we've lost touch with reality.
Relationships suffer because once you "possess" a partner thanks to a dopamine-fueled motivation, you fail to reprogram your habits to appreciate and savor that relationship after the honeymoon phase.
In the last letter, The Meaning Crisis, we discussed how to reconnect with reality through being, doing, and becoming.
Dopamine is the anticipation molecule. So, if we want to enjoy the things we have, we must train ours minds away from the future-oriented and move back to a sustained state of present-oriented.
In other words, be more. Soak in the present moment. Adopt a mindfulness habit. Go on a walk. Stare at a leaf and find joy in the translucent web of life encapsulated in such a small green object. That's the main habit you're probably missing.
Dopamine detoxes help for this reason. You eliminate all sources of what you don't have and you become incredibly bored. The only option you have is to find interest in what's right in front of you. To see a new world as if you were a child again.
But, you don't have to do a dopamine detox.
You simply have to change how you approach, use, and leverage the technology that is destroying most people's lives.
The Holistic Solution: Long-Term Gratification
Here's the thing.
Dopamine isn't a bad chemical.
It's the driving force behind success and failure.
The difference is long-term vs short-term gratification.
That sentence isn't to be taken lightly, because that difference is massive.
Short-term gratification – or cheap dopamine – leads to entropy.
Long-term gratification – or earned dopamine – leads to centropy.
Entropy, for what we're concerned with, is the gradual decline into chaos, uncertainty, and disorder. Think: anxiety, overwhelm, and that inescapable bubble of negative thoughts that seems to only get worse and worse because we can't make sense of the world anymore, usually due to dwelling on the surface for too long.
Centropy, or reversing entropy, is the upward battle we are all facing as humans. It is maintaining, creating, or improving order and certainty. Think: how challenge leads to fulfillment, flow, and a sense of purpose or control over your life.
Since social media is such a large and almost necessary part of our lives, I want to focus on that.
While social media can turn toxic fast, it's difficult to ignore that it's an integral part of how we do and will work, how we communicate, and how we stay on the same page as everyone else so we can improve as a society. Of course, that last part is heavily being taken advantage of. Nobody seems to be on the same page if they leave their sensemaking in the hands of the companies that want to maximize your time on the platform and exploit your mind's wiring.
That poses the problem:
Being a slave to a curated algorithm feeds you short-term gratifying content that keeps you in a state of stress and survival. The combination of fear and desire pull you away from the present and entropy increases. What you thought was a harmless post was actually a combination of 50 short posts you read in unison that silently induces chaos in your mind. You regress. You stay the same. You lock yourself into a paradigm of political ideologies and static opinions that aren't conducive to achieving anything worthwhile in your life.
Now, if the incentives of social media companies were different, we would all be in a much better place. But we are too deep into the hole now, and it's wise not to trust anyone, especially a mega-corporation, with increasing your quality of life. That's on you.
Creating New Digital Environments For Success
Have you heard of the Broken Window's Theory?
It's pretty fascinating.
In a nutshell, there was an experiment done where they studied 2 different environments: one with intentionally broken windows and one that looked clean and tidy.
In the area where they installed new windows and cleaned the area up, crime decreased by ~50%.
In the area where they broke windows and created a mess, crime increased.
Why does this happen?
Because your environment heavily conditions your behavior.
On the internet, we're constantly exposing our minds to an area with thousands of broken windows a day.
Digital environments condition your mind much faster than physical ones because there is more information available.
Here's the kicker:
Few people realize that you chose to put yourself in that environment, and you, as an intentional individual, can create a new one.
Becoming A Value Creator – The Life Of Earned Dopamine
Social media is one of the greatest technologies available to us.
I don't mean to brag (okay, I kind of do) but social media is rarely toxic and inflammatory to me. Sure, I get sucked down some political rabbit holes and bad takes, but 95% of the time social media is both the engine and the fuel of the unconventional success I've achieved.
Think about it. Social media allows you to:
- Learn almost anything, challenge your understanding, and seek new perspectives to get closer to truth.
- Build a business or independent source of income. You have indirect access to 5.5 billion people you can help in exchange for another form of value, like money or attention that can be used to lead more people down a path of long-term gratification, creating a ripple effect.
The One Person Business Launchpad breaks this down in simple terms. Its goal is to help you make your first $5K with 5 customers around your main skill or interest.
- Find potential employers, investors, team members, or connections. Creating high-value content does the heavy lifting for you now.
All of which are centropic. They take time and effort. They reverse the entropy and chaos you are so used to by providing meaningful inputs and outputs. They are earned dopamine. They lead to greater complexity and order allowing you to spot more opportunities, solve more problems, create more value, and profit in a meaningful way.
Since the social media companies won't change their own incentives, it's up to you to create your own. Your own order. Your own environment. Your own catalyst for success.
Here's how, in 3 steps:
1) Curate Your Digital Environment
The first offender is short-form content.
It can be useful for quick insights but can quickly devolve into a rabbit hole of memes and meaninglessness.
We no longer challenge our beliefs and understanding with books and articles whose incentives aren't to become a New York Times best sellers or to create the most inflammatory engagement-bait headline. If their main intention is status (main intention, everyone is chasing status in one way or another), the information they distribute will be tailored to that.
Most of your time spent on the internet should be dedicated to long-form content that challenges, expands, and nurtures your perspective.
Read longer. Read about more difficult concepts. Read things that don't confirm your beliefs just to make you feel good. Reading can easily be confused with mental masturbation when it is so much more than that.
I would argue that most of your future success is dependent on this single habit. Read longer things.
In other words, consume content that aids in your development and not the other way around.
- Unfollow accounts that you know aren't serving your growth.
- Find long-form writing, videos, and podcasts that you enjoy listening to.
- Follow those long-form creators on social media – they write better short-form content that helps fill in knowledge gaps.
- If you'd like, notice who those people interact with and follow them too.
- The algorithm will start to feed you better content. Be ruthless about unfollowing or blocking content that doesn't serve you.
The more you curate your digital environment, the more you reduce entropy and promote centropy.
2) Focus On A Meaningful Project
Go do something great and your network will instantly emerge. – Naval Ravikant
Now that you have good, centropic inputs, you need good centropic outputs.
Dopamine doesn't just come from consuming information, because information isn't limited to things you read and hear.
Your habits… what you do… conditions your mind in a positive or negative direction. You can either work on a project that acts as a puzzle piece to your ideal lifestyle, or you can fill your boredom with memes and pleasure that lead to disorder and chaos.
Why build a project?
Because they are ordered. They frame your mind. They allow you to channel your inputs – the information you consume – into something real and valuable. Something you can earn an income from. Something you can contribute back to the world.
If you don't have a project to build, chances are you are already working on a project… someone else's. One that was assigned to you by a teacher or employer. You'll spend 8 hours building their dreams but won't spend 1 hour building your own.
And yes, 1 hour is all it takes to completely reset your mental well-being.
3) Earn Your Control And Freedom
Now, what do you build?
Well, I'm assuming you're starting from scratch.
You have little money saved up. You may have a few skills. You have the ambition, but you don't know where to start with building your own thing.
The thing is, we're not in the industrial age anymore, we're in the information age.
Getting a job and investing your savings isn't the only option.
In fact, if you couldn't tell, people are losing trust in the conventional path's promises to secure their future. It's one of the worst options because your time, energy, and emotional well-being are at the control of a boss.
All new wealth is being generated in the digital space.
The idea space.
The creator economy.
A place where people aren't limited by their connections or physical location because they can reach anyone with an internet connection.
And if you have the right skills – writing, marketing, and building – all you have to do is get what you build in front of a micro-fraction of people that perceive what you built as valuable.
So:
Create the content you want to see in the world.
Build the product you want to see in the world.
Create the content that stretches your mind and encourages you to grow as you write. Attract like-minded people to your interests by building an audience. These are the people you can help the most.
Build the product that contributes to the development and self-actualization of others. Promote your product to your audience – because you don't have a boss to do it for you anymore – and earn your freedom.
That's it for this letter.