we are turning oil into dopamine

the other day i read something that really stuck with me:

we are transforming millions of litres of oil into a few milliliters of dopamine.

we produce all this stuff (fancy cars, fast fashion, big houses, ipads…) that no one really needs, using up tons of resources. it gives us this quick excitement, a short rush when buying it, something to look forward to, and then it fades quickly and we fall back to our base state. all it does basically is a release of a few nmol of dopamine in our brains.

in that sense, a huge amount of planetary resources and energy is being used to generate temporary psychological rewards rather than lasting well-being.

which is completely insane if you think about it. obviously there are some products that are actually useful beyond the quick dopamine hit. but look around you. how many companies exist just producing shit we don't need?

and this quick dopamine hit gives most people a reason to keep going to the job that they don't love.
and because they don't love their jobs, they desire these dopamine rushes more, just to have something to take them out of their state, even if just for a moment.

the system sustains itself through this loop.

so what actually makes us happy?

based on my experience it's:

• feeling useful
• deep, authentic relationships with the people around you
• feeling good in your body
• feeling connected to something bigger (god, community, purpose, etc.)

and the crazy thing is.. most of these things are free. they don't really require any consumption. they require time, presence, and attention rather than money.

which is exactly what our current system works against. social media is lowering our presence. our jobs make us so busy that we barely have time for anything else.

so we suffer from working too much, to buy things we don't need (and most of us work in the places that produce them), and with all that we keep ourselves from creating the conditions for real well-being.

the weird thing is, i think many people know this.
there is a kind of collective awareness that consumption is not the answer. but this awareness rarely translates into behavior change at scale.

because our system is built in its roots on this fallacy, it's so hard to stay out of it. even if individuals see through the illusion, the broader economic and social system still pushes us to participate. and they spend a lot of money and talent on figuring out how to capture our dopamine systems best.

this is not about not working

don't get me wrong, we all need to do some work, and we need to keep producing goods that are actually useful. but i think we need to sort out what those actually useful goods are. and i think we all need to work less, so that we have enough time and energy for things like relationships, doing nothing, sports etc.

the system absorbs the critique

even when people genuinely try to improve things, they tend to operate inside the same underlying logic of growth, consumption, and competition. this limits how transformative their actions can actually be.

so we end up doing vegan certified bullshit that is also unnecessary. instead of questioning whether something should exist at all, we optimize how it is produced. we make products "sustainable", "vegan" or "ethical" that are still fundamentally unnecessary. the system shifts from less consumption to different consumption, but the un-necessaty stays the same.

or we build ai for wellbeing, when really we just need to hang out with our friends. we create products and services to solve problems that could be addressed in much simpler, human ways. instead of reducing complexity, we add layers of technology and markets on top. this can even replace or crowd out the very things that actually work — real connection, presence, community.

ideas like sustainability, mindfulness and wellbeing get turned into new markets. instead of changing the system, they become features within it.

so what's the solution?

i think in essence only more awareness can solve this.

• awareness of what actually makes us happy or unhappy
• awareness of the fears, ego or social pressure driving us to do things we don't actually want
• questioning motivations, habits and inherited definitions of success

how can we get that?

• more time and space to think and reflect
• ai could help by increasing productivity and freeing up time (though this is uncertain)
• more realistically:
  • taking breaks
  • having distraction-free time
  • stepping out of constant stimulation and busyness

conclusion

i don't think we need another product to fix something. i don't think we need more. we need less. we need to go back to the things that make us truly happy. sitting around the fire, sleeping in nature, having a honest conversation with our friends.