How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husain

“I'm going to make a cup of coffee. I'm going to drink the coffee. Some are long term. I always say, you know, if nothing else, you know, get a PhD because you'll teach yourself that you can work on things for long periods of time, sustain a lot of effort and uncertainty.”

“It must, right? I mean, if the same circuitry is involved in motivating to make a cup of coffee because it feels worth it to me to get the caffeine and the taste, that's responsible for trudging through something over several years, an endeavor or relationship of any kind.”

“I mean, it's a totally different game. In one case, it's like a slot machine that has a high probability of success, like making the coffee, right? It's almost every time you actually get the coffee. And in the other one, it's like, we're talking years.”

“We had Ethan Cross on the podcast, he's a psychologist at the University of Michigan, and he wrote a book about chatter. People would love to turn off their thoughts because most of what people report as their inner chatter is not pleasant.”

“Do you remember Google Glasses? They were supposed to record everything that you saw through the day. They weren't successful when they came out because most people realize that actually most of the things that are happening during the day are boring.”

“So initially, we tried levodopa L-Dopa, which is the drug that Oliver Sachs describes in Awakenings and many people will see in the film. And it's used a lot in Parkinson's disease for treatment.”

“So these people who are now addicted to nicotine, I don't care what people say. You're not necessarily robbing people to get money for your pouches of nicotine, but tell them to stop. And then it's like, I'm not going to stop. They go from one pouch to three to eight to a canister every couple of days or even day.”

“I find those studies fascinating, especially given the fact that so many people take stimulants. You know, whereas a few years ago, there were some people taking Adderall, Ritalin, and most 90% of adults drink caffeine worldwide. I mean, it's incredible. Now, nicotine is everywhere.”

“And that class of drugs acts directly on dopamine D2 and D3 receptors rather than being a precursor to making dopamine in the brain like levodopa. And this drug, Ropinirole, latches onto dopamine receptors directly and stimulates the dopamine circuitry. So we slowly ramped up this drug, thinking, is it going to be any different or not?”