Category: mental

Dopamine and watch collecting

In her book Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke – psychiatrist, author and Chief of Stanford’s Addiction Medicine Clinic – explores why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain… and offers suggestions on what to do about it. She condenses complex neuroscience into simple metaphors often using the experiences of her patients. I thought there was some benefit in talking about the concepts at a high level, and drawing some parallels to this weird world of collecting watches.

Impostor syndrome in watch collecting

The term ‘imposter syndrome’ was first coined in 1978 by two US psychologists who called it the ‘imposter phenomenon’. They defined it as feeling like a fraud despite obvious successes and high achievements. Although this concept is mostly applied to workplaces and working professionals in various fields, it absolutely does apply in watch collecting, and I believe it signals a loss of one’s perspective – which just needs some recalibration.

Do you like it, or do you want it?

It is likely that you have, at some time in your life, really wanted something… but upon finally getting it, felt rather disappointed. Pehaps you thought a career change was the solution to all your problems, but realised it wasn’t, once you had done it. Or perhaps you thought you’d like living in another country, but ended up regretting the move. Why does this happen? Why do we find a divergence between what we think something will be like, and the ultimate reality when we finally experience it?

Nudge – Improving decisions

I was reading this book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein entitled “Nudge” – in the book they evaluate choices, biases and the limits of human reasoning from several perspectives. They tell stories about how they trick themselves to becoming victims of the very limitations of thought that they are describing. This is telling, because the very fact that these educated, articulate professionals can trick themselves (even though they know what is happening) demonstrates how tough it is to think clearly. We fall prey to systematic errors of judgment all the time – however, one of the ways of harnessing this issue is to help others make better decisions.

Is it worth having children?

René Descartes was a French 17th century philosopher, most famous for his saying “I think therefore I am”. What makes him stand out for me, is that he was a fierce rationalist – relying on reason as the best guide for belief and action. This was in an age when many philosophers backed up their arguments with appeals to god, Descartes trusted in nothing more than the power of human logic. I am no philosopher, but I do see myself as a fierce rationalist too, often relying on logic to solve many of my own conundrums. It is with this logical hat on, that I would like to discuss the topic of having children, and why this may, or may not be a good idea. My overall conclusion is that while young children may bring many moments of joy and positives to young parents, the real reason for having children is the benefits to the parents when they get old.