14 Comments

Wow! Dr. Dan! I love how you intricately wove, dopamine and our reward system with seeking justice and fairness! Wonderful! Thanks for sharing your perspective and knowledge with us! The world also feels more just and beautiful when we hear we are not alone in this crusade! Thank you!

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Thanks Shalani.

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This looks like an ad to market something. Why did you add this here? I was happy that Substack was the one place where there were no ads and no soliciting, please don’t bring any marketing to Substack! We are here for a common cause, please don’t pollute that!

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As an executive coach, “current brains world wide in the big chair are not grounded” , not trained, and have no space between their damaged trauma, filled brains as they lead and make hard decisions that implicate us all. I’ve been in healthcare for over 35 years and the brain that’s literally cutting you open in the OR hasn’t rested in decades. Social media impacts the brain: I am a big fan of the “anxious generation” by Jonathan Haidt, who has also consulted with the DNC and everything they’ve gotten wrong with their big brains. GOP and their brains are next up ! We have tons of work to do here and I really appreciate your insight as we re-imagine how we’re going to be. That’s why we’re on Substack and that’s the work we have to do. 🧠🧠🧠

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Thanks, Michelle. Summed up 👌. The lack of development in the top jobs is very concerning.

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Thanks for my dopamine hit 🥰

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We know from the work of Prof Sopolski at Stanford ( and others) that dopamine is not just a reward neurotransmitter. It’s has many roles . The reality is that dopamine comes before the action and the reward . People with purpose get the hit before the reward . It’s why motivation and will power are not a long term solution.

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Best and TRUE analysis of this misunderstood issue. BRAVO!

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Thank you!

Richard 😊

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Excellent post!

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Ps. Great article Dan.

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I see people talk about being ‘purpose led’ ( not the Gov btw) and ‘know their WHY’, as if it’s some nice to have or a box to tick at the Board ( Bored) meeting. We know from the work of the greatest neuroscientists, philosophers and high performance experts ( Maslow, Kotler, Feldman Barret , Eagleman, Huberman, Wheal, Bergson) that peak experience / high performance requires purpose, passion, curiosity, competence, autonomy and mastery.

It’s basic neurophysiology of Flow. The way some ‘gurus’ and business leaders talk about it, you’d think it was magic !! Wake up . We’ve moved form mysticism to biology . It’s called being human. Leadership is about that .

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I do find it fascinating that the more we learn about the brain and quantity objectively the psychology of it, that we end up in the “self-improvement” realm of discussions. “Self-realisation”, actualisation, moralistic aspects, empathy, and the layers of development needed to get there is really something. And, as you say, moves us away from “new age” personal development ideas into hard science for neurodevelopment. I will say though, many of the “new age” gurus have got quite a bit of it right.

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Very Good re_direct.

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