Hip Hop Culture, Vocal Recording, Sound Design, The Mix Engineer. Miles Davis, The spirit of Disco, Lester Bangs, the KLF, the disdain of 2pac, the passion of DMX, the ATL Fye and Yeek Soulness. This is why we come to Substack. And posts like this - this is why we stay. Thank you for invoking the Magician Archetype. You turned Dopamine and Debbie Downers and Frustration Flowers into Heaven’s Heated Pools…. And it’s time for the Substack Society to soak in the Suds of Spiritual Salt Water until We Self-Actualize…..
Fantastic, thanks. So much food for thought. I think this will be really helpful. The best tactic I’ve found so far to deal with some of this is the Pomodoro technique.
This is a really useful post. I recognise many of the ways that dopamine triggers are built into our everyday experience by default. Your guide is great way of try to start taking back control (because lets face it, tech-capitalism is invested in keeping us dopamine addled). One thing I've done is schedule in a walk without headphones. I love listening to podcasts but just allowing the sound of the real world penetrate my brain is a natural relaxant. Also, I now "time box" reading sessions. Actually having a period set aside for reading and nothing else helps rewire the distracted brain over time. I was shocked how difficult I found this at first. But it made me realise how important the ability to focus is.
Nice article mate. Dopamine has made my music journey tricky at times. Understanding how the chemical works has helped a lot with that and my ADHD so going to come back to this article
Dopamine Nation was a book I had a hard time putting down. It put so much clarity on the loops I found myself in and being able to visualize the tug and pull of the dopamine system helped a lot to avoid the spikes and valleys… social media and games on my phone seem like taking a break, but the slope is so slippery. It can be anxiety inducing very fast. Taking in content is only inspiring to a point, then it is creativity squashing. Silence seems to be the key. And more silence.
I really enjoyed reading your text. We all go through ups and downs—especially as freelancers in creative fields, where self-motivation is a constant challenge. It’s part of the journey, and navigating these highs and lows is what makes growth possible.
Such a great read, especially hearing it from an engineers point of view. Really resonated with the part of wanting to get back to the feeling of why you fell in love with the craft in the first place, and not letting dopamine get in the way of that love. Great stuff!
Everything in this article sounds terrifyingly familiar, only I got to watch this happen to a collaborator 😳
Hip Hop Culture, Vocal Recording, Sound Design, The Mix Engineer. Miles Davis, The spirit of Disco, Lester Bangs, the KLF, the disdain of 2pac, the passion of DMX, the ATL Fye and Yeek Soulness. This is why we come to Substack. And posts like this - this is why we stay. Thank you for invoking the Magician Archetype. You turned Dopamine and Debbie Downers and Frustration Flowers into Heaven’s Heated Pools…. And it’s time for the Substack Society to soak in the Suds of Spiritual Salt Water until We Self-Actualize…..
Fantastic, thanks. So much food for thought. I think this will be really helpful. The best tactic I’ve found so far to deal with some of this is the Pomodoro technique.
This is a really useful post. I recognise many of the ways that dopamine triggers are built into our everyday experience by default. Your guide is great way of try to start taking back control (because lets face it, tech-capitalism is invested in keeping us dopamine addled). One thing I've done is schedule in a walk without headphones. I love listening to podcasts but just allowing the sound of the real world penetrate my brain is a natural relaxant. Also, I now "time box" reading sessions. Actually having a period set aside for reading and nothing else helps rewire the distracted brain over time. I was shocked how difficult I found this at first. But it made me realise how important the ability to focus is.
Nice article mate. Dopamine has made my music journey tricky at times. Understanding how the chemical works has helped a lot with that and my ADHD so going to come back to this article
Im glad that this resonated with you and you were able to take something away from this that can better your relationship to Dopamine.
Dopamine Nation was a book I had a hard time putting down. It put so much clarity on the loops I found myself in and being able to visualize the tug and pull of the dopamine system helped a lot to avoid the spikes and valleys… social media and games on my phone seem like taking a break, but the slope is so slippery. It can be anxiety inducing very fast. Taking in content is only inspiring to a point, then it is creativity squashing. Silence seems to be the key. And more silence.
I really enjoyed reading your text. We all go through ups and downs—especially as freelancers in creative fields, where self-motivation is a constant challenge. It’s part of the journey, and navigating these highs and lows is what makes growth possible.
This is really great thank you. The description is right on the money, and the prescription is very practical and helpful.
Thank you for reading through it, I hope everything is okay with them now, maybe share this with them if it could help in any way.
Such a great read, especially hearing it from an engineers point of view. Really resonated with the part of wanting to get back to the feeling of why you fell in love with the craft in the first place, and not letting dopamine get in the way of that love. Great stuff!