I actually more or less completed this blog post two weeks ago.

I wanted to post it much sooner, but I've been "going through it" recently. A lot of the work I've been doing feels emotionally irrelevant to me right now, and sharing it feels inauthentic. That's been slowing me down a bit. I have a lot of content in the works that is emotionally relevant to me, and you can expect to see it in the upcoming weeks as I process things the only way I know how—through writing.

However, all that being said, I couldn't wait to post this because some of my predictions became true between when I wrote it and now.

OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, just released their first version of a TikTok/Reels-style product with only AI-generated content. This should terrify you(for reasons covered in this post).

Just remember while you read this: with changes in technology, some of these details will change, but the values and principles here will not.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Enjoy!

Tom Lennon, one of the creators of Reno 911, co-writer of Night at the Museum, and founder of infamous comedy group The State, once said that he quit video games in the 80s because they were getting "too good."

He recognized that they were going to be a problem for him, so he simply opted out. He said no. He wanted to be in control of his attention and his time and realized that video games were the greatest threat to his sovereignty over himself, so he just said no.

The video game he was hooked on? Galaga.

And he was right—video games did get a lot better.

So did junk food. So did video content. So did porn. So did everything.

I sometimes wonder how many of history's great artists, philosophers, and inventors would have succumbed to modern iterations of these same temptations.

How many plays would Shakespeare have written if he could have played Fortnite instead? Would Abraham Lincoln have become president if Pornhub existed?

In the modern era, it's something we all recognize but seldom talk about. A simmering feeling that we could be doing more if not for our misuse of time and attention. We want to change, to spend more time on what's important, but our vices feel so good. And don't we owe ourselves some of these simple pleasures?

For me it was video games. I love the short, yet defined feedback loops. My Achilles heel is a false sense of accomplishment. In me is an incredible drive to achieve—I'm ambitious, and video games fulfill this need in a perverse way.

The ball and chain around your ankle might have a different name, but it's heavy all the same.

Maybe it's comfort foods. Maybe it's constant pornography use. Maybe it's Netflix show after Netflix show.

The insidious nature of the trap lies not only in the innate compulsion within each of us—vestigial signals we've had since before the first human rubbed two sticks together to make fire. It's that these vices are getting smarter. They are learning.

The companies that provide these products and services to us are incentivized to maximize how much and how long we consume, and the shareholders who vote do not care about your well-being.

This means that resisting these modern landmines will become increasingly difficult. We're not just competing against our base desires—we're competing against teams of engineers and AI-powered algorithms determined to keep you and me hooked.

There is an arms race for our attention, and most people don't even know it.

It's okay to do activities that engage dopamine, but dopamine slavery is obvious when you see it.

Think of the elderly gambling addict who sits at a slot machine near Vegas and just puts money into a machine all day long. No joy on their face—just deadpan compulsion to continue a "recreational activity."

Most of us have habits like this. What are the activities that siphon away hours of your day? If you were to float above yourself like a silent spectator and watch yourself, when would you look like these people who are trapped gambling?

Dopamine slavery is when your time and energy are unwittingly structured around activities that do not make you happy, and which you often don't even enjoy. And you feel a lack of agency to change the behavior.

Distinctions are important here. Not all pleasure seeking is the same.

Sex is better than porn. Games with friends are better than gaming alone. Whole foods are better than junk food.

Dopamine is an important signal. Before it was being hijacked, it's what drove us towards necessity—towards survival, connection, achievement. Now it's being weaponized against us.

Remember the fat adults from WALL-E? What looks dystopic from the outside will feel utopic from within.

We will love these products that capture us, and pay through the nose to use them.

Being a slave will be pleasurable.

This crisis of attention is engineered—a positive feedback loop designed to drive you to engage.

In essence, all of these feedback loops are the same, so I'm going to use TikTok as an example.

TikTok is a short-form video platform. There are two users: content creators and content consumers.

Creators create content with the goal of getting as many views as possible. That is the metric they are rewarded on.

Once content is created, it's shown to subscribers of that creator as well as a small sample of users who the algorithm has decided have the greatest chance of engaging with the content.

If the content is being engaged with, the algorithm notes the demographic (age, race, gender) and psychographic information (beliefs, identity, lifestyle) of the content consumer and shows it to more people like them. The creator gets feedback on what works and creates more of it. The feedback loop tightens.

The technology is only going to get better, and we are at the very beginning of the slope of the S-curve. The cycle of getting feedback from an audience and then iterating and distributing that content will only ever shorten. This means media that is engineered for you, delivered to you instantly.

As AI advances, this feedback loop will compress even further. We no longer even need creators to stage, film, and edit content. Production will become instant. The algorithm won't just show you content—it will generate it in real-time, perfectly calibrated to your exact psychological profile.

Remember that if these companies could sap all of your money and capture all of your time and attention, they would. Soon, they'll have the means to do so.

In order to prepare for this inevitability, you're going to have to start at a high level, which means beginning with your values.

What is your time worth? You can put a dollar amount on it if you want, but I think this escapes the hard question you have to ask yourself: Why is your time worth anything at all?

This begins as an issue of self-esteem.

As a thought experiment for framing the value of your time—let's assume your time is worthless, because you are worthless. You don't deserve a good life.

If this were true, then it really doesn't matter if you spend all of your time playing video games or watching TV. You're incapable of wasting time because there's nothing to waste.

You're not worthless though, and neither is your time.

So how much is your time worth?

A hack that's often used here is to pick a dollar amount. "My time is worth $100 an hour. If I'm not doing an activity that I would pay someone else $100 to do, then I'm wasting my time."

Alright, but how do you put a value on spending time with your family, watching the sunset, laughing with your best friend at the funniest thing they've ever said?

Money is a heuristic, but there's nothing that beats knowing what you care about. The things that give your time value are directly attached to your personal values. Time you spend on superficial gratification is time not spent doing things that fulfill you.

There is an opportunity cost to everything. Price accordingly.

Another tactic is to set a time-wasting budget.

How much of your time is okay to waste?

I'm not telling you not to watch The Office for the seventh time. You don't need to be micromanaged. But you should have a ceiling for how much time you spend doing it. Pick a number. Weekly, daily, it doesn't matter—but start somewhere.

"I'm okay wasting 12 hours on meaningless content a week."

This will force you to be intentional about how you use unintentional time.

Idle hands are the devil's playthings.

The greatest inoculation against this type of attention capture is to have a meaningful goal that you're passionate about. Some kind of goal or project that enriches not only your life but the lives of others.

A lot of our bad consumption habits are there to fill negative space—the void where meaningful work isn't.

You need something that rouses you from your bed. A dream, a problem that occupies your shower thoughts.

It doesn't need to be productivity-related. It could be "be a great father." It could be "make sure the people I love know I love them," or "write the kind of fantasy novel I dreamed of reading as a kid."

Most "dopamine slavery" habits are isolating. Be a part of a group, cohort, or team.

These bad habits tend to isolate us. Setting aside time to be around other people will push you to do better things with your time.

When you're with friends, don't go on TikTok—play board games, get into rich debates, make each other laugh. Remind yourself of the things you sacrifice when you numb yourself.

There are no social media apps on my phone.

I would, during any amount of downtime, take out my phone and start mindlessly scrolling. I couldn't break the cycle so I just refused to play.

Quitting cold turkey is hard. It's usually done at rock bottom or during some fit of inspiration.

Still though, if you're not able to moderate a habit, it might be better to put an end to the habit altogether.

This might be my most controversial tactic.

It's hard to binge eat nutritious whole foods like steak, broccoli, and potatoes. The same thing applies to content.

Most likely you are going to watch TV, movies, and play video games. If quitting isn't an option then be more intentional with the type of media you consume.

Choose media that's rich and intellectual, things that inspire curiosity or awe.

For example, when I'm picking a video game to get into, I try to only play games that naturally terminate or ones that I play with friends. Games that I couldn't spend all of my time playing.

There's a difference between playing Bubble Pop or Subway Surfer and playing a deep RPG like Disco Elysium or playing Jackbox with your friends.

Documentaries and Oscar winners are better than watching Love Island or doing your ninth round of rewatching Scrubs.

The companies that manufacture bread and circuses have bottom lines to protect. They do not care about consumer guardrails.

You're the only one who can protect your time and attention. Nobody is going to value you more than you.

This arms race for your attention is a zero-sum game, and you are the loser.

If you don't think about armament now—constructing a life that protects your conscious sovereignty—there will come a time when it's too late. Once you've become captive to an accelerating, self-improving machine learning media algorithm, it's over. You will have lost.

And what you will have lost is you.

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