Book: 20231029 to 20231222, "Irresistible" by Adam Alter

20231029 - Prologue: Never Get High on Your Own Supply 1

Screen and Internet have changed our lives forever. We have no choice but adapt to the new environment.

Why many people believe that communication through SMS is better than face to face? The illusion of self-protection and advantages of ignoring negative consequence?

The cost of communication through Internet is lower than face to face talking.

Part 1 What is Behavioral Addiction and Where Did it Come From?
20231029 - 1 The Rise of Behavioral Addiction 13

"The reward was so great that they would need to find a way to pass the time until the next reward was available." p57

Why boredom is so unbearable after getting unexpected reward? This reminds me of the idiom story "守株待兔", which means "wait for gains without pains".

Normally we need to pay price to get reward, which means no pain go gain. But addictive stuff give us another possibility. We can feel happy through drug, instead of hard work. We can communicate with many people online, without meeting them(most likely strangers) first, and even if we said something improperly, there is no consequence.

Is it all about pain and gain?

20231029 - 2 The Addict in All of Us 46

Addiction is more about memory? That means it is more about subconscious.

Changing environment and remove other cues, are actully treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. I believe meditation focus on the root cause. Check ourselves all the time: why do we think it this way, or why do we want to do that? That can keep our subconscious in check.

20231109 - 3 The Biology of Behavioral Addiction 68

Is it possible to like many things, but don't really want them? Is that what Zen masters feel?

Can we control our dopamine producing?

Part 2 The Ingredients of Behavioral Addiction (or, How to Engineer an Addictive Experience)
20231110 - 4 Goals 93

To be happy, we need to use system to replace goal.

System is about doing, not about achieving specific aim. So, it's not related to any number, such as money.

We can get small dose of dopamine from system, from time to time.

System leads us to a better self, but it would be hard to compare our achievement to other people's.

For example, painting, writing, playing music instruments, etc. The key is to enjoy the journey and small improvement, and keep learning something new that we love.

Reading is good. Meditation is even better.

20231118 - 5 Feedback 121

What is drug? My definition: something unnatural which make our brain to produce dopamine.

It could be chemical stuff, or just electronic stimulus.

Drugs are all aim at our subconscious, as addiction is the reaction of our subconscious. Lost control means our conscious cannot take over the control from our subconscious.

Our gene normally only make our brain to produce dopamine when there is something happened which helps us getting better chance to survive. These includes obtaining food, sex, resources, skills and support from others, etc.

Drugs give us illusion that we get more resources or skills, but actually we get nothing. That's why we will regret about the resources(money) and time spent on drugs.

The tricks from electric drugs is make those illusions more real. Feedback is one of the critical factors.

20231119 - 6 Progress 147

Progress make the illusions more real. It makes our subconscious believe that the skill is something helpful, and we can master it eventually, and we are getting better at it.

It's loss despise as win. We win nothing as the cost of our limited time(lives) and other important stuff, such as losing good relationship and money.

20231128 - 7 Escalation 167

Is FLOW the ultimate happiness we are pursuing? We don't notice the time passing in FLOW status.

Drug, gambling, games, etc. addictive stuff all lead us into FLOW, so it's neither good nor bad.

Do we need to judge our behavior by result? Short term result or long term result? If we become good at chess, but is that useful? What's the difference between chess and computer game?

It's about instant feedback. Any FLOW which gives us instant feedback, is most likely bad.

Instant feedback means there is no compound effect. Nature prefers compound effect.

The FLOW which makes us patient is good.

20231128 - 8 Cliffhangers 191

We always want to get things done. Or else, we feel that the time we invested on it is wasted.

We don't want to wait for a while to see the result. We want the outcome now. That's why many people cannot stay as long term investors, and keep buy and sell shares everyday.

Sometimes I don't feel that I want to wait for two hours to see the result of a movie.

Then how about the slogan from Nike: "Just Do It"? It also encourage to follow our impulse, but in the right direction. It suggests us that don't be lazy and take risks. That's good!

It's still about the period of time to see the result(feedback). We need to accept that cliffhangers are part of our lives. We should be patient, or agree that quite often we are not going to see the result, or it's not worth the effort to see the result. We may have to "waste" the time that we have invested, but if that doesn't affect our higher priority tasks, then it doesn't matter.

20231209 - 9 Social Interaction 214

Immersion (flow), achievement (illusion), and social element (useless social skill and achievement).

These three factors lead to behavior addiction.

Should we ban children from playing screen games before 18 or even 22? Maybe. But there sould be better solution.

Part 3 The Future of Behavioral Addiction (and some Solutions)
20231210 - 10 Nipping Addictions at Birth 237

What's the general principle to cope with screen? Screen is similar to sugar. We should only eat it when it's necessary, and while eating it, we enjoy it.

Too much sugar is bad to our health, but sugar itself is inevitable. We just need to minimize the intake of it.

What brings us good habit? Autonomy, relatedness(social bonds), and competence. p261

20231220 - 11 Habits and Architecture 263

Can we arrange environment carefully to avoid addiction?

I think that can solve 90% of the problem, but we still need to pay attention. There will be more and more unexpected addictive temptations around us. We will not notice some of them until getting addicted to them for quite a while.

20231222 - 12 Gamification 293

The author got two points wrong.

1. Gamification should be driven by internal thoughts, not by external envirnment.

Or else, we will reply on the external environment to avoid addiction. That would not last for long time.

2. Gamification can let us do repetitive tasks for longer time, but it doesn't bring us creativity.

For example, we can study for longer time and memorize more content through gamification. But we will not have deeper understanding of the information.

AI is perfect to design a system for gamification. This is scary.

20231222 - Epilogue 317

"End of history" illusion is real. We have to accept it, or else we would waste too much energy guessing about the future.

How to handle it?

1. Keep our mind open.

2. Do the things we are sure is right, such as physical exercise and read.

3. Avoid the things we are sure is wrong, such as spending too much time with screen.