disciplinemog your dopamine system

if we plugged ourselves into a matrix simulation with sensory highs, 24/7 , there would be no point to life because what else is there to live for?

sensory pleasures only feel good in when we can contrast to the absence of them.

based on the assumption that there is an ideal ratio of adversity:boredom:pleasure. pleasure points are a resource that we should allocate towards the activity with highest return.

what is pleasure, and how do we define return on pleasure? pleasure in any living being evolved to reward behaviours that lead to reproduction.

the cavemen layer: survival, food that carries energy, and hydration. reproduction, sex.

the civilisational layer: social collaboration that helps us outcompete neighbouring species / tribes.

in the modern world, the cavemen layer is pretty easy to hit, and corporations have evolved to exploit, greed and overconsumption on this layer.

the pleasure that scales, is collaboration and helping people. the easiest way to do this, is to give healthy pleasure to those we care about, and enable them to give healthy pleasure to those they care about as well.

a ballpark quantification of the adversity:boredom:pleasure ratio. 14 hours awake each day, 5 hours to cavemen pleasures, eating, exercise, hygiene, cleaning, grooming. the 9 hours should be dedicated to socialising + working on hard problems with great people.

on the way there, simply avoid all corporatised stimulation (social media, junk food, excess entertainment), and we'll probabilistically win by default.