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Dopamine Fasting

nytimes.com

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Re: Dopamine Fasting

#91

Post by in_hindsight »

magic_beans wrote: post #81
ddorian43 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some martial art (a real one) like muay-thai (no need for fights) works really good for this.

Martial arts are really hard to get into as a beginner. I'm physically fit and fairly flexible, but the dogmatism of many martial arts and the high barrier to entry (extreme strength and flexibility seem to be required even to start) made me really uncomfortable with a wide variety of martial arts. I've tried aikido, capoeira, kung fu muay-thai, boxing — but they all seemed to required beginners to immediately be abl…

Try barazilian jiu-jitsu it’s pretty amazing, no dogmatism and is a real deal unlike aikido

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#92

Post by draw_down »

ryandvm wrote: post #69

> The other day, Mr. Sinka ran into an old friend but had to tell her they could not continue speaking. > “I hadn’t seen her in six months, and it was extraordinarily exciting, super-stimulating, and I could feel how excited I was,” he said. “So I had to cut it off and I just said, ‘Listen, it’s not you, it’s me, doing this dopamine fast.’” If this were on HBO's Silicon Valley, we would dismiss it as too over-the-top…

Madness.

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#93

Post by hinkley »

watwut wrote: post #76
chrisweekly wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're ever in a management position, I hope for your sake -- and your subordinates' -- you outgrow that notion.

You can be helping and serving without having any leadership impact or role. Completely. Overwhelming majority of people who help others or server others are not leaders. Helping and serving others will not put you into leadership position nor proves you are capable of leadership. And while good leaders help on occasions, they are not serving not the bulk of that role does not consists of helping and serving.

Necessary but insufficient.

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#94

Post by downvoted »

awinder wrote: post #47
songzme wrote: post #5

The struggles of first world problems...

This is a very Silicon Valley sort of framing of a problem that is very core to the human experience. I’ve been reading through the (NIV) bible and it’s really interesting to connect a lot of passages to mindfulness (which derived from buddhism, also been around for thousands of years). It’s clear that humans have been struggling with the overactive mind for a long while. Anyways, knock the dopamine fasting practice…

It's also a very old problem--the need for people to find meaning in a world that is essentially devoid of any kind of meaning for them. The old, ancient problem. I would argue that these are the two defining problems of life: finding meaning, and finding purpose. The way we solve the first, by seeking meaning, and the way we solve the second, by finding purpose, is the same way we solve all other problems. Because, if we aren't finding meaning and purpose in life, then we are missing out on the very essence of what makes our life worth living.

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#95

Post by hinkley »

vekker wrote: post #14
songzme wrote: post #5

The struggles of first world problems...

I don't know about that... for example, as smartphones become more and more ubiquitous, it becomes easy and cheap for people of all income levels to indulge in visual & auditory sensory overload. I'm currently traveling in Asia and it's jarring to see the number of people sitting idly, watching some random YouTube videos or Facebooking to pass the time.

The internet tells me that smoking costs about $2k a year. I’m pretty sure people are spending that much on cell phones now.

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#96

Post by neilobremski »

I can't say I agree with this (besides how silly it reads). Outright avoidance as a periodic tact sounds like jarring panacea. One day I wake up in a flood of sensations and the next day I stick my head in the sand? Where is the adaptation, the learning, the evolution?

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#97

Post by organsnyder »

anbotero wrote: post #79
wccrawford wrote: post #64

Reading through this, it identifies something that I've seen a lot of people say is a problem, and suggests that the way to solve the problem is simply don't do it sometimes, on a schedule . While that may help, you've basically dedicated a portion of your life to not enjoying your life. Instead, I've taken a different tack. I've chosen to do those addictive things less, but instead of not-doing-fun-things, I do fun…

You expect too much from the same people that complains about the simplest of things. Yours is the most down to earth approach to these issues . No need to look for an extreme, or fast solution (which I think is what drives these things; no data to back it up). Just some dedication and moderation. I don’t really like exercising, yet I try to find excuses to walk to the supermarket or to work (half an hour). I don’t r…

It's hard when so much of commerce is conspiring against us. I truly enjoy using Facebook (in the absence of a non-evil alternative) to interact with family and friends, but every time I do so I have to fight the platform's design that optimizes for quantity of interactions.

I have tried doing a bit of woodworking when I need a break (I work from home), and I've found it's much better for my mental, emotional, and physical well-being compared to going down a social media rabbit hole (like I'm doing presently). Not only do I feel like I've accomplished something and have gotten some exercise, but it also doesn't usually suck me in for hours at a time—especially since I mostly use hand tools that tire me out fairly quickly.

tl;dr: rabbets instead of rabbit holes

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#98

Post by Japhy_Ryder »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #38
vekker wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about that... for example, as smartphones become more and more ubiquitous, it becomes easy and cheap for people of all income levels to indulge in visual & auditory sensory overload. I'm currently traveling in Asia and it's jarring to see the number of people sitting idly, watching some random YouTube videos or Facebooking to pass the time.

> I'm currently traveling in Asia and it's jarring to see the number of people sitting idly, watching some random YouTube videos or Facebooking to pass the time. Why is it jarring?

Because there's an actual real world, with real people around us that we could be interacting with, rather than staring at a smartphone screen?

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#99

Post by dawg- »

ryandvm wrote: post #69

> The other day, Mr. Sinka ran into an old friend but had to tell her they could not continue speaking. > “I hadn’t seen her in six months, and it was extraordinarily exciting, super-stimulating, and I could feel how excited I was,” he said. “So I had to cut it off and I just said, ‘Listen, it’s not you, it’s me, doing this dopamine fast.’” If this were on HBO's Silicon Valley, we would dismiss it as too over-the-top…

Wow, this is a peak "I bet this guy is fun at parties" moment.

It's all incredibly ridiculous. If this man were really on a "dopamine fast", the conversation still would have ended, but not in the same way.

It would have ended because he would be wiggling around on the floor and making noises like a dying cat. His basal ganglia, starved of dopamine, would not be able to make any of the neural connections they need to coordinate any of the muscle movements in his body, including the muscles needed for speech. This guy seems like he was more interested in informing this person that he was fasting than actually keeping his "fast".

This incident reminds me of the Desert Fathers, the early christian monks who lived in the desert in Egypt. They took fasting very seriously as a way of keeping their religious purity. Many of their parables caution against keeping your fast for show. Here's one:

"Once two brothers went to visit an old man. It was not the old man’s habit, however, to eat every day. When he saw the brothers, he welcomed them with joy, and said: “Fasting has its own reward, but if you eat for the sake of love, you satisfy two commandments, for you give up your own will and also fulfill the commandment to refresh others.”

From "The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks" https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Fathers-Sayings-Christian-Clas...

Re: Dopamine Fasting

#100

Post by tvanantwerp »

anbotero wrote: post #79
wccrawford wrote: post #64

Reading through this, it identifies something that I've seen a lot of people say is a problem, and suggests that the way to solve the problem is simply don't do it sometimes, on a schedule . While that may help, you've basically dedicated a portion of your life to not enjoying your life. Instead, I've taken a different tack. I've chosen to do those addictive things less, but instead of not-doing-fun-things, I do fun…

You expect too much from the same people that complains about the simplest of things. Yours is the most down to earth approach to these issues . No need to look for an extreme, or fast solution (which I think is what drives these things; no data to back it up). Just some dedication and moderation. I don’t really like exercising, yet I try to find excuses to walk to the supermarket or to work (half an hour). I don’t r…

If you find it easy to live a moderate life, good for you. Many others don't find it easy at all.
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