Lost Art in the World of Dopamine

A few thoughts on reading and dopamine.

Hi.

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Today’s world is one where the young adults are all into doing things which are full of cheap dopamine in comparison to what the generation above us were into. (Me included).

I read something interesting about how the younger generation is more vulnerable to social media.

Jack Raines wrote in his post ‘Analog is Cool Again’

First, why are young people so vulnerable to the internet’s dark side? The obvious answer is that young people are more susceptible to, well, pretty much anything considered dangerous or addictive. But there’s more to it than that. Young people also grew up in the era of a fully-evolved internet, while the folks who built the internet experienced its evolution incrementally.

Much like alcoholics, who build a tolerance to booze over time, the generation that built the internet was exposed to its changes gradually. Desktop preceded laptop preceded smartphone. Painstakingly slow dial-up internet was the norm for years. Netflix’s streaming business didn’t surpass its DVD rental business until 2009, 12 years after the company was founded. Our smartphone <> social media industrial complex didn’t really take shape until the back half of the 2010s. For older generations, internet exposure evolved with baby steps.

This is a difference that everyone can see evidently. In times like these reading a book is something which is rare. There are a lot of things that reading is good for like getting to know more but the argument to that is very simple you can simply get the knowledge/information from a summary or some documents online.

I have one new thought though. Reading is something which ends up in you getting into someone else’s head. When you open a book you are basically reading someone else’s thoughts. Charlie Munger keeps saying some of his best friends are long dead. Imagine reading the autobiography/biography of people like Ben Franklin, Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, etc. You literally go into their lives and get to know people who are great but long dead.

Reading is something which is very personal. People can recommend other people what to read but if I am being honest a lot of the people after a certain point find out what kind of books they like and can pick books on their own.

Naval had a quote which stuck with me,

“Read what you love until you love to read.”

This is something I try and help most people who ask me what to read with. A topic which is of interest to you, and then you look for some book. I find that to be something which can spark an interest in reading. You can read literally anything.

Reading is something which can keep you in touch with yourself also I have found. Reading gives you a lot of insights. When you get a lot of insights you have a lot of things to reflect on and think about. When you think about it and reflect on things you are doing what most people don’t do. You are doing something unglamorous.

Most people in the world full of noise only consume noise. Reading books can also contain a lot of noise but there is a lot of signal to be found in books.

There are certain jobs though where there is information overload and there is too much to read. For example an investment analyst has to read a lot. A lawyer has to read a lot. For them the problem is the fact that they read too much. They have to filter what is relevant and what is not. It is not easy to do. I think what investment analysts to the best of my knowledge should do is stick to the public disclosures that companies like annual reports, concalls, etc. Most of the information that you need can be found there.

These are just a few random thoughts on reading. Let me know what your thoughts are I am interested to hear what you think?

Thank you for reading,

Samvit.