This Book Will Help You Break Your Dopamine Addiction
To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was The Practice of Groundedness by Brad Stulberg. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes. Book’s main argument:We live in a hyperconnected world where you are one notification away from a dopamine hit. Too many people are focused on productivity, self-improvement, and being “always on.” The solution lies at the intersection of ancient wisdom and modern science in what Stulberg calls “groundedness” — or the art of being present every day as you take the long-term view of your work and accomplishments. 10 Big Ideas:💡 Idea #1 — The modern world runs on heroic individualism. This can drive some people to incredible success, while it pushes others into a very bad place. Brad writes:
Brad continues by explaining the issues that arise as each person pursues heroic individualism:
💡 Idea #2 — Happiness seems to be a pursuit that everyone embarks on, but few people can describe what they are chasing or why. Additionally, research shows that our attainment of happiness may be more psychological than we previously thought. Brad writes:
Many people have fooled themselves into believing that the “next achievement” will finally bring them the happiness that they are seeking. Brad explains why that is likely not true:
Brad then explains that a constant pursuit of unachievable happiness can actually accelerate the lack of happiness:
💡 Idea #3 — Groundedness is something that you have to constantly work on. Brad has created a six-part framework for helping you achieve groundedness and stick with it through the chaos and uncertainty of your daily life (edited for brevity):
💡 Idea #4 — Brad explains that most people will succumb to a bad day, a bad emotional state, or a negative event. Instead, it is important to understand that the human understanding of the relationship between your actions and your mood are usually backwards. He writes:
When something is going in a direction that you don’t like, Brad suggests saying the following phrase to yourself:
💡 Idea #5 — Multitasking is one of the worst ways to spend your time and energy. You may think you are being more productive, but you are almost certainly not. Brad writes:
This obsession with multitasking is partially due to the fact that we carry super-computers everywhere we go. Brad explains:
And most of us are doing it because we think it makes us more important:
💡 Idea #6 — You can improve your life by focusing on what is important and focusing when you have the opportunity to spend time with the people, or on the things, that you deem most important. Brad writes:
💡 Idea #7 — The modern world, especially the technology industry, has celebrated the individuals with the biggest goals. While this can be good for certain missions, it can be detrimental in other scenarios:
Sometimes you will have to optimize for long-term sustainability, rather than max effort in a single day or week. This is called “stopping one rep short.” Brad explains:
💡 Idea #8 — Life is all about operating in an ever-changing environment. The more easily that you can navigate various aspects of life, the more prepared you are to succeed. Brad eloquently describes emotional flexibility:
💡 Idea #9 — Technology is a blessing and a curse. When it comes to the downsides of tech from the groundedness perspective, you can put them in two major buckets:
💡 Idea #10 — Physical exercise is much more important than you would think. It can create mental toughness, boost your mood, and increase your mental functioning. Brad has an entire chapter on this but these two phrases stuck out to me:
Memorable quotes:
Pomp’s Takeaways:My first big takeaway is that groundedness is not a new concept, but rather a modern spin on something that many civilizations, philosophers, and cultures have been pursuing for centuries. They all have different names for it, but the idea is generally the same — focus on the present moment and avoid distractions. Brad’s explanations and examples from the modern lens will be helpful to those who don’t enjoy ancient philosophy, etc. The second big takeaway was the recurring theme of practice that we have seen in many other books (ex: Robert Greene’s Mastery). If you are going to focus on the present, then you will need to have the patience to work at something every day for long periods of time. Don’t chase quick results. Be exceptional by having the persistence that no one you are competing with is able to endure. The third big takeaway is “mood follows action.” I love this one. Brad uses the example of going to the gym. You’re tired. You don’t want to go. You’re not in the mood, right? Well, science shows that if you simply show up and start doing some exercises, even if half-assed, your actions will increase your mood to a more positive state. It is hard to have the self-discipline every day, but the phrase “mood follows action” is something I’ve already thought about a few times since reading it. The fourth big takeaway was actually something that I disagree with Brad on. His writing is very focused on the groundedness principle, but there are obviously times when obsessive, hyper-alertness is necessary. For example, Sam Altman (formerly President of YCombinator) has explained that one of the only correlated data points to founder success that they were able to identify was how quickly founders responded to email. Outlier founders responded in minutes, while everyone else averaged days. My guess is that Brad and I would arrive at the following conclusion — sometimes you have to be “always on” and sometimes you need to chill out. Knowing which one is appropriate at any moment is the challenge. The fifth and final takeaway was something that Brad referred to as “convergence.” He was explicitly talking about the intersection of ancient wisdom, modern science, and the daily habits of successful people and athletes. They were all pointing to the idea of groundedness. My takeaway was the point of convergence can be highly illuminating on any topic and in any field. It is a great intellectual alarm system to tell you that you’re close to an answer — multiple disciplines all arriving at the same conclusion. That is hard to identify sometimes, but when you see it, it can be a thing of beauty. As I mentioned, past week’s book was The Practice of Groundedness by Brad Stulberg. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoyed these notes. Let me know if you would like me to continue writing these in the future. -Pomp Note: Make sure you are subscribed to receive these personal notes each Monday morning. You’re a free subscriber to The Pomp Letter. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
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