Did you win?

你贏了嗎？

Did you lose?

你輸了嗎？

What's a letdown?

什麼是失望？

What's a celebration?

什麼是慶祝？

I think one of the most important findings in the last few years in neuroscience is that the molecule dopamine is associated with reward.

我認為，過去幾年神經科學領域最重要的發現之一就是多巴胺分子與獎賞有關。

It's more about motivation and craving.

更多的是動力和渴望。

When I say the common currency is dopamine, what I mean is the molecule dopamine, when secreted in the brain, makes us pursue things, build things, create things, makes us want new things that we don't currently already have.

當我說共同貨幣是多巴胺時，我的意思是多巴胺分子在大腦中分泌時，會讓我們追求事物、建造事物、創造事物，讓我們想要目前還沒有的新事物。

It's a way of tabulating where we are in our life.

這是一種記錄我們生活現狀的方法。

Are we doing well or are we doing poorly?

我們做得好還是做得不好？

And that happens on very short timescales.

而這一切都發生在很短的時間內。

But do you wake up feeling good or do you wake up feeling kind of low or on long timescales?

但是，你是一覺醒來感覺良好，還是一覺醒來感覺有點低落或時間跨度很長？

If you're halfway through a long degree or you're halfway through your life, how are you doing?

如果你的學位已經修了一半，或者你的人生已經過了一半，你做得怎麼樣？

How do you gauge that?

如何衡量？

Well, it has everything to do with how much dopamine you were releasing in the previous days and weeks and years.

這與你在之前的幾天、幾周、幾年裡釋放了多少多巴胺有關。

What's cool is that once you make these processes conscious, once you understand a little bit about how dopamine is released and how it changes our perspective and our behavior, then you can actually work with it.

最酷的是，一旦你意識到這些過程，一旦你稍微瞭解多巴胺是如何釋放的，以及它是如何改變我們的觀點和行為的，那麼你就可以真正利用它。

This example, the person that's not motivated, that can't get off the couch, that doesn't want to do anything.

例如，一個人沒有動力，無法離開沙發，什麼都不想做。

Well, this is the problem.

這就是問題所在。

They are effectively the rat with no dopamine, but they can still achieve some sense of pleasure by consuming excess calories, by consuming social media.

他們實際上是沒有多巴胺的老鼠，但他們仍然可以通過攝入過多的卡路里、通過社交媒體獲得某種快感。

And look, I'm not judging.

聽著，我不是在說三道四。

I do this stuff, too, right?

我也會做這些事，對吧？

Scrolling social media.

滾動社交媒體。

If you've ever scrolled social media and you're like, I don't even know why I'm doing this.

如果你曾經在社交媒體上滾動過，你會想，我都不知道我為什麼要這麼做。

It doesn't really feel that good.

其實感覺並沒有那麼好。

And I can remember a time where you'd see something that was just so cool or you see something online.

我還記得有一段時間，你會在網上看到一些很酷的東西。

I remember this when TED Talks first came out.

我還記得 TED 演講剛問世時的情景。

I was like, this is amazing.

我當時想，這真是太棒了。

These are some, at least some of them are really smart people sharing really cool insights.

這些人中，至少有一些是非常聰明的人，他們分享了非常酷的見解。

And then now that they're like a gazillion TED Talks, I remember spending a winter in my office when I was a junior professor, cleaning my office finally and binging TED Talks in the background, thinking this is a good use of my time.

現在TED演講已經多得數不清了，我還記得在我還是初級教授的時候，有一年冬天，我在辦公室裡打掃衛生，一邊看TED演講，一邊想這是在好好利用我的時間。

Pretty soon, they all sucked to me.

很快，他們都被我鄙視了。

I was like, this isn't good.

我當時想，這可不好。

So what you need to do is stop watching TED Talks for a while, wait, and then they become interesting again.

是以，你需要做的是暫時停止觀看 TED 演講，等待一段時間，然後它們又會變得有趣起來。

And that's this pain pleasure balance.

這就是痛苦與快樂的平衡。

And so for people that aren't feeling motivated, the problem is they're not motivated, but they're getting just enough or excess sustenance.

是以，對於那些沒有動力的人來說，問題在於他們沒有動力，但他們獲得的營養卻剛剛好或過剩。

So they're getting the little mild hits of opiate.

是以，他們得到的是輕微的鴉片劑。

It becomes an opioid system.

它變成了阿片系統。

And if you think about the opioid drugs as opposed to dopaminergic drugs, dopaminergic drugs make people rabid for everything.

如果你把阿片類藥物與多巴胺能藥物相比較，多巴胺能藥物會讓人對一切都狂熱。

You know, drugs of abuse like cocaine and amphetamine make people incredibly outward directed.

要知道，濫用可卡因和苯丙胺等毒品會讓人變得異常外向。

They hardly notice anything except what they want more of.

除了他們想要更多的東西，他們幾乎什麼都沒注意到。

More, more, more, more, more.

更多，更多，更多，更多，更多。

It's very, it's bad because those drugs trigger so much dopamine release that they become the reward.

這是非常糟糕的，因為這些藥物會引發大量多巴胺釋放，從而成為獎賞。

It's very circular that only the drug can give that much dopamine.

只有藥物才能產生如此多的多巴胺，這是個很好的循環。

Nothing they could pursue would give them as much dopamine as the drug itself.

他們所追求的任何東西都不會像毒品本身一樣給他們帶來那麼多的多巴胺。

And then there's the kind of opioid like effects of constantly indulging oneself with social media or with video games or with food or with anything to the point where it no longer evokes the motivation and craving.

還有一種類似於阿片類藥物的影響，那就是通過社交媒體、電子遊戲、食物或任何東西不斷放縱自己，以至於不再喚起動力和渴望。

And this is really the new evolution of the understanding of dopamine in neuroscience, which is that dopamine itself is not the reward.

這實際上是神經科學對多巴胺認識的新發展，即多巴胺本身並不是獎賞。

It's the buildup to the reward.

這是獎勵的鋪墊。

And the reward has more of a kind of opioid bliss like property, which itself is not bad if it's endogenous, released from within.

而獎勵更多的是一種類似阿片類藥物的幸福感，如果是內源性的，從體內釋放出來，這本身並不是壞事。

But when we can just sit there like the rat with no dopamine, gorging ourselves with pleasures, so to speak, what you end up with is somebody that feels really unmotivated.

但是，當我們可以像老鼠一樣坐在那裡，沒有多巴胺，可以說是大快朵頤時，你最終得到的是一個感覺真的沒有動力的人。

And those pleasures no longer work to tickle those feel good circuits.

這些快樂不再能刺激那些感覺良好的電路。

And so there's no reason for them to go out and pursue anything.

是以，他們沒有理由去追求什麼。

And that's a pretty dark picture.

這是一幅相當黑暗的畫面。

So the keys are to pursue rewards, but understand that the pursuit is actually the reward.

是以，關鍵在於追求回報，但要明白追求其實就是回報。

If you want to have repeated wins, the celebration has to be less than the pursuit.

如果你想屢戰屢勝，慶祝就必須少於追求。

And that's hard for some people to do.

這對有些人來說很難做到。

If you can start to identify the craving as its own internally released drug, this thing dopamine, that is a source of motivation.

如果你能開始把這種渴求識別為它自己內部釋放的藥物--多巴胺，這就是動力的來源。

Then what you realize is that capturing the reward is wonderful, but attaching dopamine to the reward is actually a little bit dangerous.

然後你會意識到，獲得獎勵固然很好，但將多巴胺附著在獎勵上其實有點危險。

Celebrating the win more than the pursuit, it actually sets you up for failure in the future.

慶祝勝利勝過追求，這實際上是在為將來的失敗埋下伏筆。

And so this gets us right into something called dopamine reward prediction error.

於是，我們就進入了一種叫做多巴胺獎賞預測錯誤的狀態。

And reward prediction error is basically if you expect something to be really great and then it's not quite that great, your dopamine baseline lowers.

獎勵預測誤差基本上是指，如果你預期某件事會非常棒，但結果卻不盡人意，你的多巴胺基線就會降低。

And now understanding what we know about dopamine, that means that not only did you feel as if you lost because it wasn't as much a celebration as you thought it would be, but it also means that you're starting from a lower place, meaning you are less motivated.

現在我們瞭解了多巴胺的知識，這意味著你不僅覺得自己輸了，因為這並不像你想象的那樣值得慶祝，而且還意味著你的起點更低，這意味著你的動力更弱。

Anytime you have a bunch of dopamine and you're in pursuit, pursuit, pursuit.

任何時候，只要你有大量的多巴胺，你就會追逐、追逐、追逐。

After you achieve a win, now this could be a business win, a relationship, a win of any kind, but inevitably there's going to be a tipping back of the scale on the pain side.

在你取得勝利之後，這可能是商業上的勝利，也可能是人際關係上的勝利，還可能是任何形式的勝利，但不可避免的是，天平會向痛苦的一邊傾斜。

And that pain side is always going to go a little bit higher than the dopamine side.

而疼痛的一面總是會比多巴胺的一面高一點。

So this is what you would feel if you pursued a goal like building a big company.

所以，如果你追求的目標是建立一家大公司，你就會有這種感覺。

Here it comes, here it comes, the big sale.

來了，來了，大減價來了。

And then there's the, well, what now, the kind of let down.

然後就是，嗯，現在呢，那種失望。

Now, if you wait, if you simply wait and stop pursuing dopamine for a short while, the scale starts to reset.

現在，如果你等待，如果你只是簡單地等待，停止追求多巴胺一小會兒，天平就會開始重置。

The problem is a lot of people immediately roll right into the next pursuit.

問題是，很多人都會馬上進入下一個追求。

And then what happens is that scale starts to get stuck on the pain side a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more.

然後發生的事情就是，刻度開始在痛苦的一邊停留得更多一些、更多一些、更多一些。

And pretty soon, no amount of seeking will allow you to experience that craving and motivation.

很快，再多的追求也無法讓你體驗到那種渴望和動力。

So what does this mean in terms of an actual tool?

那麼，就實際工具而言，這意味著什麼呢？

Well, first of all, if people can do what you do, they're going to be in a much better position in life.

首先，如果人們能做到你所做的，他們的生活就會好得多。

Doesn't matter if it's school, sport, relationship, any domain of life.

無論是學校、運動、戀愛，還是生活中的任何領域。

If you can start to register that craving and that friction and that desire, that almost kind of low level of agitation, sometimes high level of agitation.

如果你能開始記錄那種渴望、摩擦和慾望，那種近乎低級的躁動，有時是高級的躁動。

That is that I'm trying to impose my will on the world in a benevolent way.

那就是，我試圖以一種仁慈的方式將我的意志強加給這個世界。

We hope that's dopamine.

我們希望那是多巴胺。

It's working with its close cousin, which is epinephrine, which is adrenaline.

它的近親是腎上腺素，也就是腎上腺素。

They are very close because, in fact, dopamine manufactures epinephrine.

它們的關係非常密切，因為事實上，多巴胺可以製造腎上腺素。

A lot of people don't know this, but adrenaline is actually made from the molecule dopamines.

很多人不知道，腎上腺素實際上是由多巴胺分子製成的。

OK, so those two are hanging out together.

好了，這兩個人在一起了。

It's like crave work, crave work, crave and work, crave and work, crave and work.

就像渴望工作、渴望工作、渴望工作、渴望工作、渴望工作、渴望工作。

And then you get the win.

然後你就贏了。

And some people allow the big peak in dopamine to be associated with the win.

而有些人則會讓多巴胺的高峰與勝利聯繫在一起。

And smart people learn to adjust their celebration internally.

聰明的人學會了在內部調整他們的慶祝活動。

Right.

對

This is all internal.

這都是內部問題。

You could throw the biggest party in the world.

你可以舉辦世界上最大的派對。

But as long as you're kind of laid back and looking at this, not letting yourself get manic crazy, you won't necessarily crash as hard.

但是，只要你能悠閒地看待這個問題，不讓自己變得狂躁瘋狂，你就不一定會崩潰得那麼厲害。

And pretty soon your system will reset.

很快，你的系統就會重置。

So you take the day, you clean up the dishes, you relax, you go, what now?

所以，你花了一天時間，收拾了碗筷，放鬆了心情，你走了，現在怎麼辦？

I'm feeling a little low.

我感覺有點低落。

Well, rather than going out and spiking your dopamine again, just wait.

與其出去再次刺激你的多巴胺，不如等一等。

Understand that the scale will reset again.

請注意，秤會再次復位。

Give yourself a few days where you're going to feel a little kind of underwhelmed.

給自己幾天時間，讓自己感覺有點不適應。

Things aren't going to be as interesting.

事情不會那麼有趣了。

It's going to be hard to trigger that big release because you just had the peak.

這將很難觸發大釋放，因為你剛剛經歷了高峰期。

Well, if you adjust that, you relax, you understand there's always a little bit of a postpartum depression.

好吧，如果你調整一下，放鬆一下，你就會明白，產後抑鬱總是會有一點的。

We sometimes hear about postpartum depression.

我們有時會聽說產後抑鬱症。

That's a clinical thing.

這是一個臨床問題。

But there's always that kind of today's not as exciting as the previous days.

但總覺得今天沒有前幾天刺激。

What am I going to do with my life?

我的生活該怎麼辦？

But then if you let it start ratcheting up again, then what you realize is your capacity to tap into dopamine as a motivator, not just seeking dopamine rewards.

但如果你讓多巴胺的濃度再次上升，你就會發現自己有能力利用多巴胺作為一種動力，而不僅僅是尋求多巴胺的獎勵。

That is infinite.

這是無限的。

And I can say with great certainty that this is how you were able to build a big company and sell it, how you've been able to build a successful podcast and sell it, how you constantly seeking because seeking is the reward.

我可以非常肯定地說，這就是你能夠建立一家大公司並將其出售的原因，這就是你能夠建立一個成功的播客並將其出售的原因，這就是你不斷追求的原因，因為追求就是回報。

And I think for most people, we think of the reward as the finish line.

我認為，對於大多數人來說，我們認為獎勵就是終點。

And so the key is to get to the finish line, step into the end zone, but no end zone dance.

是以，關鍵是要到達終點，踏入端區，但不能在端區跳舞。

It's just like, yep.

這就像，是的。

And now I'm going to go do it again.

現在我要再去做一次。