Some scholars estimate that in one day we are now exposed to more information than a person in the fifteenth century encountered in their entire lifetime.

Our brains, remember, are designed to constantly scan for and prioritize “scarcity cues.” Those tip-offs in our environment that make us feel as if we don’t have enough. They fire on the scarcity mindset.

Nguyen calls this phenomenon “value capture.” When we stamp a simplified scoring system on an activity, we begin to fixate on the scoring system and chase points rather than experience the activity’s original goals. “Those metrics take over our motivations,” said Nguyen. “We get satisfaction in exchange for shifting our goals along engineered lines

Addiction is chronically seeking a reward despite negative consequences.

The more resources we could get, the more we could fuel the development of our amazing brains. The more our amazing brains developed, the more we could figure out how to explore new territories. This might be why still today walking while paying open attention to the world can enhance creativity, concentration, and understanding.

We crave information, but we’d prefer it to be easy to get. Picking up the phone or meeting someone in person is more uncertain, unpredictable, and uncontrollable than being behind a screen and reading what someone else already interpreted.

“My most promising students usually don’t receive an A. They’re too freethinking. Or they’re gritty hustlers who work forty hours a week while taking on a full load of courses. My most promising students are usually in the B to A- range. “My students who get As, on the other hand, are more likely to be the more robotic and less creative ones. Or th

But Maslow’s fourth rung of the hierarchy was a bit more controversial. It centered on what he called “esteem” needs. Maslow argued that we not only need to feel good about ourselves. We also need to feel as if others feel good about us. Maslow put it like this: “We have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige, respect or esteem from

“This deprivation,” wrote the scientists, “can lead to a life absorbed by preoccupations that impose ongoing cognitive deficits and reinforce self-defeating actions.”