Andrew Huberman "Rich People Think Differently"

the early stages of hard work and focus

are going to feel like agitation stress

and confusion because that's the

norepinephrine adrenaline system kicking

in none of us would expect to walk into

the gym and do our PR lift or you know a

performer go do something without

warming up the brain also needs to warm

up and start to hone in which circuits

are going to be active

and it's it's unreasonable for us to

think oh I've got an hour I'm going to

plop down and write beautifully for an

hour of my best work we need to accept

that there's a period of agitation and

stress that accompanies the dropping

into these highly concentrated States

now in terms of the reward that

accompanies the feeling that we're

funneling into that that groove of being

productive in in one regime like for you

writing this book

the dopamine system is really important

to understand so we've talked about

norepinephrine kind of gets you going

acetylcholine is the spotlight of

attention

the dopamine system is Mother Nature's

hardwired ancient system in all animals

including humans to put us on the right

path a lot of people talk about dopamine

as this thing that you get when you

publish the book or when you get the

book deal or when something wonderful

happens like your child's born and

that's true but dopamine's main role is

to be released anytime you achieve a

milestone or you think you're on the

right path

and when the dopamine system is Tethered

to a particular pattern of focus

remember duration path and outcome so

it's like okay sit down maybe you don't

get much text out but then the next day

you get 800 words of really solid text

and you feel good like I'm into this

what does that dopamine system do the

dopamine system takes the norepinephrine

which is normally rate limiting like at

some point

there's so much norepinephrine that you

quit dopamine can push that

noradrenaline back down that adrenaline

back down and give you more room more

space to do duration path and outcome

work highly focused work and I'm making

duration path outcomes synonymous with

highly focused work why would this

happen so let's think about an animal

let's think about a deer that wakes up

and is thirsty

and it's wandering out looking for water

that animal needs water it doesn't know

that it needs water it experiences

agitation the same way that a baby feels

agitation when it wants food but it

doesn't know it needs food it just feels

agitation and cries and the caretaker

comes hopefully that deer is now

foraging for something that it needs and

let's say it smells water because deer

can actually do that and arrives at a

stream and takes a sip of water there's

dopamine released then that puts it on a

path to maybe a larger Lake or something

of that sort or to be able to go cheap

food so when we are on the right path

and we hit a milestone dopamine is

released and it tends to tighten our

focus more for that activity this is why

drugs of abuse and why alcoholism and

some you know process addictions which

are behavioral addictions are so

dangerous because they a lot of those

drugs of abuse are dopamine so it

becomes this cyclical Loop where there's

no other behavior that can evoke the

same level of release right in fact I

sort of Define addiction as a

progressive narrowing of the things that

bring you pleasure and I say that

because it really is the way that the

dopamine system works normally the

dopamine system is designed to be

generic it's designed to get me to do

lots of things social quality social

interactions you know work exercise all

those things

just like the stress system is designed

to get me out of bed in the morning a

cortisol pulse is what gets me out of

bed in the morning it's also what leads

me to or led me to pursue a career in

science out of fear initially and

eventually pleasure so the dopamine

system is Tethered to those states of

focus and it's what Mother Nature

designs so that neuroplasticity would

occur and you would want to continue

those behaviors again in the future that

deer needs to know and remember and

create a memory not just of where that

stream is but the process of oh when I

feel that agitation I'm going to get up

and go down this particular path right

and so people think of the dopamine

system as this kind of like catch-all

for reward oh you get likes on Instagram

and it makes you feel good that's not

really how it works

and the important thing to understand is

when you start getting a convergence of

norepinephrine to that level of

agitation duration path outcome

acetylcholine and dopamine now you're

starting to wire in the behaviors that

make people really good at certain

things what this means is that for any

of us success in any Endeavor is very

closely related to how much Focus we can

bring to that endeavor and the reward

system you start to realize is entirely

internal no one's coming along and

cramming dopamine in your ear or

dripping it in your brain it's all

internal and this starts to bring us

into the kind of like discussion around

mindsets the discovery of growth mindset

was of these kids that actually really

enjoyed doing problem sets that they

knew they couldn't get right but for

them they would get this like dopamine

release from just focusing on the

problem they like doing puzzles they

couldn't get right it sounds crazy but

inevitably those kids are very good at

puzzles and very good at math and these

kinds of things so growth mindset is I

believe it was sort of a neuroscience

lens on growth mindset would be that the

agitation and stress that you feel at

the beginning of something and when

you're trying to lean into it and you

can't focus is just a recognized gate

you have to pass that through that gate

to get to the focus component and then

if you can reward the effort process you

really start to feel Joy and low levels

of of excitement in the effort process

that's that buffering of adrenaline

that's that feeling like yes I've got a

lot of adrenaline in my system but I'm

on the right path it feels good to walk

up this hill so to speak and when you

start to bring those neural circuits

together

you really start to create a whole set

of circuits that are designed to be

exported to any Behavior you want

so if it's writing a book great if it's

podcasting great if it's building a

business great if it's if it's you know

building a terrific relationship great

then the circuits that Mother Nature's

design are incredibly generic so that we

could adapt to whatever it is that we

need to do and I think the

misunderstanding around how these

circuits work has led to this idea that

there's some secret entry point maybe

marked flow on the door and there's a

trampoline up to that door and you just

open that door and you're going to be in

it right and nothing could be further

from the truth and anyone who's done

well in any career or athletic Pursuit

knows this but unfortunately there's a

kind of obsession with the idea that

it's all supposed to feel good and it

does feel good but there's a whole

staircase in which it feels kind of

lousy the idea that you can self-reward

the effort process is extremely powerful

because what it means is that if you can

recognize agitation stress and confusion

as an entry point to where you

eventually want to go I do think that

just that even just mental recognition

can allow people to pass through it more

easily they think they're doing

something wrong and then rewarding

yourself when you achieve any Milestone

like you know running to a particular

location if you're trying to run a long

distance and then registering that as a

partial win

what we know is that the dopamine that's

released in response to that suppresses

the total amount of adrenaline and gives

you more room more time more energy to

run in the running example and this is

anchored in a real scientific result so

last year there was a paper published

that essentially was asking why any

human or animal quits at any Behavior

talking about running or we're talking

about long bouts of work the question is

why do we quit like what is that it

turns out that every time we exert

effort a certain amount of noradrenaline

in the brain is released and there's a

sort of a counter in the brain stem and

at some point enough noradrenaline is

released and it shuts down cognitive

control deliberate control over the

motor circuitry and we quit the thing

that can restore those levels or can

sort of reset those levels lower and

give us more gas more mileage is

dopamine and it makes perfect sense

because our species had to move against

very challenging things in in nature and

in in terms of in culture at every stage

of our Evolution including now a good

example would be if you're really

slogging it out and things are miserable

just think like the worst family

vacation everything's a disaster or a

very hard physical event

and someone cracks a joke

you're almost immediately feel a sense

of relief you see this in the team that

wins the Super Bowl both teams slogged

it out you have to believe they were

both at Max effort the entire game look

at the team that wins they have extra

energy they're jumping all over the

place so it can't be physical energy it

can't be glycogen related it's not

Ketone related it's nothing in the body

in that sense it's dopamine's ability to

take that level of norepinephrine and

smack it back down and so we can learn

this right I mean I think this is where

there's real power like in your story

um or the story that I'm familiar with

from your book like the the ability to

push through those pain points is

something that we really can export to

other aspects of life because it's the

same neurochemicals that are involved so

when you get to a particular location or

maybe you're I recall

um you know a portion where you're just

you're feeling lousy you know you're

injured or you feel like you're hurt and

you can reframe it mentally

and think I'm actually still on the

ladder I'm still holding on to a rung I

know at least that much I'm still

breathing I know that much and the lift

that we get is not some psychological

pump up it's a neurochemical thing it's

dopamine suppressing norepinephrine and

saying you're on the right path you can

keep going it's a permission to keep

going and we grant that permission to

ourselves no one grants that permission

to us I think one of the other kind of

misconceptions that we want to dissolve

is this idea that external rewards can

actually Propel us down long past of of

success and high performance they can't

I have a friend from the SEAL Teams and

somebody asked us recently we were given

a talk um and somebody said how can I

make sure that I continue to self-reward

and I'm not driven by these external

rewards how can I continue to have that

drive and uh his answer was very good he

said give away all the external rewards

there's a famous Stanford study done at

Bing nursery school did this study where

they looked at kids that like to playing

during their recess it's all recess in

nursery school but they're drawing and

they took the kids that really like to

draw

and they started giving them little gold

stars on their drawings and then they

liked the gold stars for a kid that's an

extrinsic reward and then they stopped

doing that and the kids stopped drawing

they just they they associate the good

feeling of doing it with the external

rewards and we have to be very cautious

about how much of our internal dopamine

we attach to external rewards if we want

to continue to grow and pursue and focus

and work hard if you just want to get to

some place and cash in

then fine but most people find

themselves in a pretty miserable place

because their dopamine was so attached

to external rewards they need more and

more one of the most powerful things

that any person can do is to learn to

control

this idea of duration path and outcome

and attach an internal sense of reward

just that you're doing well to reward

yourself mentally just say I'm doing

well I'm actually on the right path

to do that inside of the

demands that come from the external

world the more often that we can

self-reward some aspect of the process

provided it's in the right direction of

what we're trying to achieve

the more energy we're going to have for

that the more Focus we're going to have

for that and remember that nor the

reason I say energy is that limiting

amount of noradrenaline is constantly

being kept at Bay you're literally

buffering the quit response and so when

people start realizing that

if they set the goals inside of the

larger goal and self-reward each one of

those they essentially have an infinite

amount of energy to pursue

those goals they have an infinite amount

of focus to pursue those goals