The Enemy of Modern Man and How To Defeat It
Men have changed. During earlier times man used to fight, provide and nurture others. Those were the times of War and the Pre-feminised world. So, what made a generation of men calling themselves geeks, gamers, and hiding behind fake names on the Internet. What is making man forget what it is to be a man?
When I talk about the enemy. You might think I’m talking about phone addiction, porn addiction. And well I am but I’m talking about something much deeper. I’m talking about Dopamine. And to be exact Cheap Dopamine.
Cheap dopamine which we get from Instagram, Porn, etc. And to defeat it we need to do activities that are fun and also make us forget about our phones.
Here’s a tweet from Naval Ravikant:
Now, you might wonder what is the difference between cheap dopamine and good dopamine. Well, dopamine isn’t inherently bad. It is the way you obtain it that makes it good or bad. Lack of dopamine will make us sad and depressed and so will excess dopamine.
Cheap dopamine is the kind of dopamine that can be derived easily, without much effort, and that too quickly. For example, you feel the need to have sex. You go to chrome and search for porn and jerk off and you’re satisfied. That’s cheap dopamine.
Whereas, when you work out and beat your previous goals you feel satisfied and thus dopamine is released. But this kind of dopamine is obtained through an investment of effort and time. Thus this kind of dopamine is actually good for you and cures depression.
So, how to find if something is good dopamine or bad dopamine?
Here’s an easy way. If you feel happy and satisfied by a task easily and quickly. It might be a case of cheap dopamine. And it sometimes comes from self-harming activities.
Whereas if you feel happy and satisfied by a task that takes more effort and time from you. Then, that kind of activity often releases good dopamine.
Here’s a few examples of activities that release cheap dopamine:
1) Consumption of drug
2) Cigarettes
3) Alcohol
4) Scrolling Instagram aka Internet
5) Watching Porn and Masturbating
6) Junk Food
Now, that we know the real enemy. Let us know how we can fight it. Well, to defeat cheap dopamine. We need good dopamine. And good dopamine can only be released through achievements. And the way to achieve this is to put in the work.
This is where Dopamine Fasting comes into place. Basically, what we do is take ourselves away from sources that provide us with cheap dopamine. You can do it daily, weekly, monthly depending on the task. I’ll be covering dopamine fasting in some other articles.
But for now, I’ll suggest going on a complete dopamine diet for one day at least a week.
