Lawrence Butler's RBI groundout
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:04 am
Breakthroughs in neuroscience have helped us understand that much of what we do is not simple decision-making inspired by a desired result. Anticipation itself is addicting. But this knowledge has been leveraged to work against us. Slot machines have existed for a long time, but it wasn’t until the understanding that our brain craves the suspense before the result, that engineers were able to create increasingly addictive games. It wasn’t about making them more fun, it was the application of neuroscience to trigger interest and maintain it for long durations.
A cluster of Stanford students doomed the mental health of millions of people when they integrated skills learned in a behavioral psychology lab into social media features and apps.
Fly fishing in general, steelhead fishing in particular, country wise email marketing list is my slot machine. I’m a lab rat pawing at a lever when I’m standing in a river hoping for a take.
Fishing is an addiction that we lean into. We gladly submit ourselves to the prolonged, miserable anticipation. Buoyed by strikes, real or phantom, we continue, pulling the lever in leaky waders. It’s mechanical and monotonous at times, but we’re addicted to the chance and if the chance does come, that’s not the end.
It doesn’t end when Triple 7s finally stop in a row at the slots. It doesn’t stop when day traders buy low and sell high. It doesn’t stop when a hoops fan hits a 10-leg parlay at 720:1 odds. And it sure doesn’t stop for steelheaders with a 34-inch chrome slab of anadromous fish.
We’re only more motivated to wade through the anticipation again.
I didn’t catch a fish that day and spent the rest of the weekend wondering about tactics, approaches and what I’ll do next time. I can’t just leave it alone.
It’s not just fishing, it’s neuroscience.
A cluster of Stanford students doomed the mental health of millions of people when they integrated skills learned in a behavioral psychology lab into social media features and apps.
Fly fishing in general, steelhead fishing in particular, country wise email marketing list is my slot machine. I’m a lab rat pawing at a lever when I’m standing in a river hoping for a take.
Fishing is an addiction that we lean into. We gladly submit ourselves to the prolonged, miserable anticipation. Buoyed by strikes, real or phantom, we continue, pulling the lever in leaky waders. It’s mechanical and monotonous at times, but we’re addicted to the chance and if the chance does come, that’s not the end.
It doesn’t end when Triple 7s finally stop in a row at the slots. It doesn’t stop when day traders buy low and sell high. It doesn’t stop when a hoops fan hits a 10-leg parlay at 720:1 odds. And it sure doesn’t stop for steelheaders with a 34-inch chrome slab of anadromous fish.
We’re only more motivated to wade through the anticipation again.
I didn’t catch a fish that day and spent the rest of the weekend wondering about tactics, approaches and what I’ll do next time. I can’t just leave it alone.
It’s not just fishing, it’s neuroscience.