How to Increase Motivation & Drive by Huberman
Dopamine discovered in late 1950s as a precursor to adrenaline (called epinephrine in brain), but it’s not always precursor; biases us for movement
Released from several sites, but most importantly from our reward pathway
- “Accelerator” — VTA sends out axons to nucleus accumbens and releases dopamine
- “Brake” — prefrontal cortex
Motivation is about balancing pleasure and pain
- Sitting at rest, our reward pathway is usually firing at 3-4x per second, but if we get excited about something (when we start thinking about it), the firing in this pathway increases 30-40x
- It’s traditionally believed to be released in response to sex (100% above baseline), food (50% above baseline), nicotine (150%), cocaine/amphetamine (1000x), or something else, but it’s most released when anticipating something (the brain can increase dopamine as much when thinking about this as when experiencing it)
- Video games with constantly novel terrain can increase dopamine somewhere between nicotine and cocaine
For every bit of pleasure, there is some amount of pain — when you eat a piece of chocolate, it shifts away from dopamine, and releases some downwards deflection (makes you want more)
- ==Every time I experience something, the associated amount of dopamine decreases, and the associated amount of craving increases (less pleasure, more pain over time)
Satiety is about serotonin, oxytocin, prolactin > “Molecule of More” calls these the “here and now molecules” — they allow us to experience pleasures in the pleasant
- Eating, which is normally dopamine-driven, can be done more mindfully, shifting rewards from dopamine to serotonin
- Marijuana and opioids hits serotonin hard, which makes us more content with what we have
- The goal is a healthy balance between serotonin and dopamine
Two types of procrastinators 1. People that enjoy the stress, and which it motivates them 2. Those that lack enough baseline dopamine
The longer I can extend the pleasure of an achievement (the dopamine release), and limit the pain, the less painful and more sustainable work will be
- After doing something meaningful, continue to take myself back to it, and actively work on enjoying it
- Achievements can be addictive if left unchecked
Dopamine is subjective — I can allow myself to reach a milestone or not
- Experiment — placebo or 200 mg of caffeine (told that they were either getting caffeine or Adderall)
- Subjects told they were getting Adderall performed better than those with caffeine
==Intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful form of dopamine reward schedule
- Occasionally remove rewards (don't burn out dopamine circuits)
- Blunt reward response for some intermediate steps (celebrate some wins, but not all of them)
- Big increases in dopamine lead to big crashes