Richard Bravman

Entrepreneur, CEO, Tech Enthusiast

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Schrödinger’s Kittens Are All Grown Up https://t.co/9sMXBHHXVG

[Dr John Vervaeke @DrJohnVervaeke]

The point that many people are making is that the standard model of addiction is incorrect.

The standard model is this: we have a biochemical dependency, and when the chemical is removed, we get an overwhelming compulsion to seek it out. And if we don't get the chemical, then we suffer…similar to how we'd suffer if we were starving from a lack of food.

The problem is that it sounds very commonsensical, and the media likes it.

But it just has the one unfortunate feature of being almost completely false.

Why?

First of all, you can get addicted to processes that have no biochemical basis, like gambling for example.

And secondly (if the overwhelming-compulsion model were correct) you'd have a great deal of difficulty explaining some very, very pertinent facts.

For example: most people spontaneously give up their addiction in their thirties. We of course get focused on the people who remain addicted, and so we come to believe that addiction is an overwhelming compulsion…but if you actually track people, many of them spontaneously stop being addicted.

Here's a great historical example: you have soldiers in Vietnam (during the Vietnam War) getting addicted to opioids. They get addicted to heroin…but when they return to the United States the vast majority of them spontaneously stopped using the drug.

What's going on? Isn't there a biochemical lock, and therefore a huge compulsion?

Well, think about it in terms of existential learning: when they were in Vietnam, they had a particular identity…they're a soldier (agent) in war (arena). They're in a particular existential mode. And when they returned to the United States, they became a citizen (agent) in a peaceful country (arena).

The relationship between the agent and the arena is what is fundamentally being altered in addiction.

So Marc Lewis (one of the foremost neuroscientists on addiction and how addiction works in the world…I strongly recommend reading his book "Memoirs of an Addicted Brain") proposes a model that he calls "Reciprocal Narrowing":

Here's your agent and here's the arena…and the drug use is associated with a particular Agent-Arena relationship.

What happens is this: you start to lose a little bit of your cognitive flexibility. As you lose your cognitive flexibility, the number of options in the world starts to decline. As the number of options declines, you lose the variability of your agency…and as your agency gets tighter, narrower, less flexible, the number of options in the world goes down even further.

These two things reciprocally narrow…until you have no options as to who you could be, or how the world could be.

And that's addiction…a learned loss of agency.

Not propositionally learned, but perspectivally, participatorily learned.

It's a narrowing of yourself and the world so that agency and options are lost…and no alternatives are available to you.

So you are a video game addict if you are playing video games to the point where you cannot pursue the goals you want to pursue in your life. You cannot establish and cultivate the relations you want to establish in your life. You cannot cultivate the kind of character or identity you aspire to.

If the video gaming is robbing you of those agentic processes, then that is what we mean by addiction.

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

@BillAckman @CNN @X “The real problem of humanity is the following: We have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology.” EO Wilson

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

I pledged a paid subscription to Barbara Oakley https://t.co/rBknfgwo9R

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Balance. The ancients understood it as an imperative. We forget that wisdom, then remember, in cycles—as with so many other things. The AIs emerging in our midst will not likely be thus challenged.

[Walter Kirn @walterkirn]

This is what I told my kids when they went to college a few years ago. Don't nerd out.

Broaden. Generalize. Learn to analyze, see patterns, and communicate. With other humans.

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

How to Fix Breakdowns in Communication https://t.co/EC6UCDqlNK via @mariapopova

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Proud to be the 3,106th 😎 on @BackerKit for Pro Tripod by Peak Design. https://t.co/c5aqFZp2Zr

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

At the local 3rd Place.

[Dr John Vervaeke @DrJohnVervaeke]

We have objectified reality itself so thoroughly that it becomes valueless—while simultaneously subjectivizing value so radically that it loses any real foundation.

We are beings of value in a universe we have defined as valueless.

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Chef Samin Nosrat: ‘So much of cooking is about being present’ https://t.co/ilGsiwTRqX via @ft

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on the Physics of Learning and Neural Computation https://t.co/bUBqDbMlv5 via @SimonsFdn

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

@NUCLRGOLF Play Cypress as often as possible. You’ll still be stuck in the 110 range, but… You. Won’t. Care. Especially after a Depth Charge or two with the Admiral who hosted you.

[Maria Popova @themarginalian]

A #birddivination for today. More of them, the story behind them, and the full physical deck of 100 at https://t.co/xpo04XE701

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

"The second law always holds; sometimes it’s just out of sight."

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

"“I say to the universe, Mighty One! thou art not my mother. Return to chaos if thou wilt. I shall still exist. I live. If I owe my being, it is to a destiny greater than thine. Star by star, world by world, system by ..." Feeling rather expansively bullish today...

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Outside in

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

And I thought it was just me…

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

Talent hits targets no one else can. Genius hits targets no one else can see...

[Richard Bravman @rebravman]

"The sound drowned out the quiet of sunset, which annoyed Augustus so much that at times he was tempted to go up and shoot the old man, just to teach him a lesson."

Along with a noteworthy number of others, I'm having a Lonesome Dove moment... via @readwise