Cheap Dopamine is Destroying Your Potential

When Naval Ravikant says something, you listen. You listen because you know it’s true. And this tweet is no exception.

Dopamine is the molecule that arguably drives most human behavior.

If you get a handle on your sources of dopamine, you get a handle on your life.

Cheap dopamine is ruining people’s potential and creating lives filled with regret instead of lives of passion and purpose.

This edition of Thrive Protocol will cover the following:

• What Cheap Dopamine is

• Why it is dangerous

• How you can mitigate its effect in your life.

Dopamine is blindly thought of as a molecule of pleasure.

• Sugar? That’s dopamine.

• Porn? That’s dopamine.

• Alcohol? That’s dopamine.

And this intuition isn’t wholly wrong, but it’s not entirely correct either.

Dopamine is not simply a molecule of pleasure; it’s a molecule of anticipation.

Dopamine creates our drive to acquire something - it motivates us and makes us want more.

When you first engage in behavior that secretes dopamine, you forge a bond with this activity. You learn that it makes you feel good, and you’ll begin to crave it.

Dopamine is the drive to fulfill this craving.

But you might only have a few minutes of satisfaction before dopamine is at it again, making you want more or something else.

Why do we have such an inconvenient and pesky molecule always driving us to acquire more? Well, it was beneficial for most of our time as a species.

The ubiquity of comfort and pleasure is a brand-new feature of humanity. For the vast majority of our time as a species, acquiring resources was damn hard work. It required virtually all of our energy.

Logically, we would evolve a mechanism to constantly remind us to mate, eat, relax, and enforce these behaviors as something to prioritize.

Our dopamine system is designed for an environment where pleasures are scarce and difficult to achieve. But what happens when you take this mechanism calibrated for pleasure scarcity and place it in an environment of pleasure abundance?

• A projected 50% obesity rate in the United States by 2030

• Over 20 million Americans have an addiction to drugs or alcohol

• 18% of men have a problem with pornography

• People pour hours of their lives into Netflix and Video Games

The problem is that we’re programmed to secrete dopamine in response to exerting effort, but these days we can cash in on dopamine without the effort part.

Expensive Dopamine

Fortunately, dopamine is not only secreted when you experience pleasure. You get dopamine when you plan and make goals for the future.

In their book “The Molecule of More,” Michael E. Long and Daniel Z. Lieberman distinguish between the “Dopamine Desire Circuit” and the “Dopamine Control Circuit.” 

The desire circuit is older, and our evolutionary drives (that turn into cheap dopamine) are produced here.

The control circuit is more recently evolved - it involves the neo-cortex. The control circuit requires planning, goal setting, and inhibitory control.

To thrive in the modern world, you need to get most of your dopamine from the control circuit. Let’s call this your expensive dopamine.

Your Dopamine Allowance

The importance of managing dopamine stood out to me through my love of food.

I’ve always loved eating, and I’m a chronic overeater. This tendency posed a problem when I developed a passion for fitness in my late twenties and wanted to improve my physique.

I used to handle this by having “cheat days” — days where I would gratuitously cater to my cravings and eat whatever I wanted. But I noticed something alarming: these days completely demotivated me.

If I had a cheat day on a Sunday, I expected to get up on Monday full of motivation, get after it in the gym, and incinerate all those excess calories.

But the motivation was never there. After a cheat day, I struggled to conjure up any drive to pursue my goals in fitness or life in general.

The reason?

You don’t have an infinite ability to secrete dopamine. The more you get your fix from cheap dopamine, the less you will have for the things that will move the needle in your life.

Let’s call these activities your lever-moving tasks.

If you want to live a life you’re proud of and thrive as the best version of yourself, you’ll need to allocate most of your dopamine to lever-moving tasks: things that build you up instead of tearing you down.

The more that you can save dopamine for the control circuit dopamine that makes real progress in your life, the more of your potential you will realize.

Cheap dopamine sources demotivate you and distract you from the things that matter.

What Can You Do?

Let’s explore some techniques you can use to rely on high-quality dopamine from lever-moving tasks.

Self-Awareness

Audit your life and look for signs that cheap dopamine is distracting you.

Can you handle it, or is it a problem?

Many people can handle moderate amounts of alcohol, ice cream, and Netflix without killing their motivation and taking too much time. But some people struggle with moderation.

You won’t have to cut out all sources of cheap dopamine, but there may be one that is too destructive for you to negotiate with.

My favorite definition of addiction comes from Dr. Judon Brewer, author of “The Craving Mind.”

Many who would not think of themselves as addicts qualify with this simple definition.

Be honest about whether alcohol, video games, or overeating is causing a problem and taking too much of your time. You may have to pose severe limitations on yourself.

Dopamine Detox

Maybe you don’t have a severe problem and need to remove a behavior permanently, but you need to reset your dopamine allocation.

In this case, you can perform a dopamine detox.

A dopamine detox removes all cheap and easy dopamine sources from your life. This can be done for any length of time, but it will be more effective the longer you do it. I’d suggest committing to 2 weeks.

That means for two weeks you:

• Cut out scrolling on social media

• No Netflix

• No alcohol

• Simple, nutritious food

• No video games

Instead, focus on better sources of dopamine.

Go to the gym.

Create something.

Read.

Learn.

Removing cheap dopamine for a time resets your dopamine levels so that you can start allocating dopamine to your lever-moving tasks. You can improve your motivation and begin to crave building yourself up instead of numbing yourself with distractions and vices.

Lever Moving Goals

Nothing secretes dopamine like moving toward a goal.

But instead of moving toward the goal of eating an entire pint of Ben and Jerries and binge-watching Netflix, you want these goals to be lever-moving.

Create specific goals in the following four areas of your life:

• Financial

• Health

• Relationships

• Career

Your financial goal could be to invest a certain amount monthly, increase your monthly income, or reach a specific savings goal.

A good health goal could be to hit a specific 10k time or increase your max Squat or number of pull-ups.

A relationship goal might be to put yourself out there by joining a social group, committing to meeting someone by going on a certain number of online dates per month, or making time for a weekly date night with your partner.

A career goal could be to learn something new at your job, go after a promotion, or grow your client base.

Your goals in these areas should be specific and achievable.

You’ll secrete dopamine as you progress towards these goals that improve your life — you won’t need to get it from cheap sources.

Expensive Dopamine First

Unless you have a severe problem, you likely won’t eliminate all sources of cheap dopamine.

You’re not going to eat bland food and refrain from entertainment forever.

But you should commit to always focusing on your lever-moving tasks first. Treat cheap dopamine as a reward; never prioritize it.

A common practice in the self-improvement community is to get up early, get a workout in, and get right to 4 hours of deep work to have the day won by the early afternoon.

Someone who does this can be more flexible with the rest of their day — engaging in pleasure won’t demotivate them since they got their lever-moving tasks out of the way.

Is cheap dopamine ruining your life?

It depends on your values.

If you value pleasure, living in the moment, and merely entertaining yourself, then cheap dopamine isn’t doing any damage. But if you want to reach your potential and live a meaningful life, then cheap dopamine can destroy your growth.

It dilutes your motivation and distracts you from the things that matter most.

Be careful with how you get your dopamine. It’s not an infinite resource. Choose your sources wisely.

TL;DR

• Dopamine is responsible for desire and anticipation — it creates motivation.

• Cheap dopamine is dopamine that doesn’t require effort. I call the dopamine that helps you reach your potential and achieve your goals “expensive dopamine.”

• You don’t have an infinite supply of dopamine. The more you engage with cheap dopamine sources, the more you dilute your energy and motivation for the things that matter.

• Audit your life and be honest about whether you have a problem with a source of cheap dopamine

• Consider performing a dopamine detox if you need to increase motivation for your lever-moving tasks.

• Create lever-moving goals for your finances, health, relationships, and career.

• Always work on your lever-moving tasks before indulging in cheap dopamine.