These notes were triggered by reading A Brief History of Human Intelligence.

1. The Emotional Quadrant

This model maps emotions on two axes: Arousal (Y) and Valence (X).

  1. Hope(Dopamine)
    High energy, positive expectation.
    You pursue goals optimistically.

  2. Satiation(Serotonin)
    Calm, content, satisfaction.
    Mostly brief. Often ends in boredom and new desire.
    The constant pendulum between desire and boredom is the endless human struggle Schopenhauer rightly identified.

  3. Depression
    Low energy, negative state.
    This is a place you don’t want to go, but unfortunately many people are in it or have been there.

  4. Fight/Flight (Adrenaline)
    High energy, negative tension.

2. Reward and Punishment

We are driven by hope and fear, pleasure and pain, reward and punishment.
We are biologically wired to move toward reward and away from punishment.。

Unrealized rewards create disappointment. Unrealized threats cause relief.

Dopamine spikes in anticipation of rewards, not in possession. Promiseing rewards is to manipulate your neurochemistry.
Criticism and humiliation are tools of control through avoidance.

Rewards are dangled to move you towards what others want.
Punishments are threatened to move you away what others don’t want.
Often, neither arrives.

First you see through the game. Then you need to decide will you play it or not?

It is smart, instead, to focus on things that need no permission and totally in your control:
exercise, meditation, and self-overcoming.

3. Reinforce and Adapt

When something works, repeat it.
That is genetically wired.

But when it stops working, let it go.
The environment has changed. The rules of game changed.

What got you here won’t get you there.

This moment is painful.
You doubt yourself.
You criticize the game.
You may tempted grow resentful or cynical. But do not.

Your choose are:

  • Leave the game, or
  • Master the game.

Choose consciously.
As a realist.
Have a strategy.
Act.
Refine.
Do not let anything or anyone derail you.

4. Action Is the Only Antidote

We think, then act, or avoid acting.
Our emotional state shapes our thoughts.
Our neurochemical state shapes our emotions.

When we feel low, we shrink.
When we shrink, others treat us as small.
That perception deepens the spiral. Straight to the depression quadrant.

The world is a very mean and nasty place and
it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently
if you let it.
- Rocky Balboa

The break is:

Just do it!

Ignore your mood.
Just do it. Do what you should and can.

The can’t hurt me attitude.
The can’t stop me attitude.
“Stand up straight with your shoulders back.”

“Hell is other people.”

Control what is yours:

  • Your body
  • Your mind
  • Your effort
  • Your discipline

If you cannot control yourown action,
why expect to control others’ behavior?

So
Go to the gym.
Callus your mind.
Work hard.
Fight against your own weakness.
Self overcoming.