Скачать или смотреть The Neuroscience of Dissatisfaction: Why You're Hardwired to Never Be Content

This analysis explains the biological and evolutionary roots of human dissatisfaction.
Key Frameworks:
1. Evolutionary Mismatch:
Your brain, evolved for hunter-gatherer environments (EEA), is maladapted to the modern digital world.
Global comparison pools create chronic status anxiety.
Digital work causes cognitive overload and mismatched stress responses (mental stress without physical release).
2. Biological Limits of Pleasure:
Hedonic Treadmill: Happiness inevitably returns to a baseline; satisfaction is temporary.
Differential Adaptation: The brain adapts quickly to pleasure (high adaptation) but slowly to negative states like stress and effort (low adaptation), compelling constant striving.
3. Costly Signaling Theory:
Human behavior is driven by the need to display costly, reliable signals of fitness (wealth, status, skill).
This imperative for social performance and acquisition directly conflicts with achieving internal contentment.

Summarizes the human drive for constant striving and the difficulty in achieving contentment, attributing this contradiction to evolutionary and biological mechanisms. The main claim is that human psychology is fundamentally mismatched with the modern environment, leading to chronic dissatisfaction because our ancient survival programming compels us to constantly seek more, while simultaneously limiting the duration of pleasure derived from achievement. The logic is structured around three frameworks: Evolutionary Mismatch, Biological Limits of Pleasure (Hedonic Treadmill and Differential Adaptation), and Costly Signaling Theory. Evolutionary Mismatch posits that the brain, evolved for small, local hunter-gatherer groups (EEA), is overwhelmed by the global comparison pool of the digital age, leading to chronic status anxiety and maladaptive stress responses. The modern digital workplace exacerbates this through cognitive overload, physical inactivity (mismatch between mental stress and lack of physical release), and the elimination of work/rest boundaries. Biological Limits of Pleasure explains that the Hedonic Treadmill ensures long-term happiness returns to a baseline, making satisfaction from achievement temporary. Differential Adaptation further rigs the system against contentment: negative sensations (stress, anxiety, effort) are slow to adapt because they serve a perceived warning role (low adaptation), while pleasure from rewards (consumption, achievement) adapts rapidly (high adaptation), forcing continuous striving. Costly Signaling Theory explains the social imperative to perform and acquire. It argues that many behaviors are costly advertisements of fitness (wealth, skill) to gain status and resources. The costliness ensures the signal's reliability, driving individuals to exhaust themselves in public performance and acquisition, often at the expense of internal peace.