Analysis Paralysis Is Holding You Back

Summary

The video discusses analysis paralysis, a state where individuals become overwhelmed by the fear of making wrong decisions, leading to inaction. It delves into the science of neuroeconomics, explaining how the brain's loss aversion circuitry amplifies the fear of potential losses, while diminishing the anticipation of gains. The video offers strategies to overcome this paralysis, such as focusing on the first thought, extending the decision timeline to allow for intermixed losses and gains, and reducing stress to lower noradrenergic transmission. It also emphasizes the importance of emotional regulation and externalizing attention to mitigate the impact of loss aversion and facilitate decision-making.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Analysis paralysis occurs when our brain overthinks decisions, leading to intentional miscalculations about the future.
• 🔄 Our brain values potential losses more than potential gains, which is a result of evolutionary adaptations meant to protect us from mistakes.
• 🎯 The first thought we have is more influential in decision-making than subsequent thoughts, highlighting the importance of our initial instincts.
• 🕒 The longer we own or commit to something, the more its perceived value increases, making it harder to let go or change course.
• 🌐 Extending the timeline of our decisions can lessen the impact of potential losses, making it easier to take action.
• 😌 Emotional regulation techniques can help reduce the fear and stress associated with potential losses, leading to clearer decision-making.
• 💤 Reducing stress and noradrenergic transmission can decrease the power of loss aversion, facilitating easier decision-making.
• 🌍 Interoception, or being highly attuned to one's internal state, can make individuals more susceptible to loss aversion, so externalizing attention can be beneficial.
• 🛌 Simple actions like getting a good night's sleep can significantly impact our ability to overcome analysis paralysis and make decisions.
• 🎮 Gaming addiction can be addressed by understanding the psychological needs it fulfills and finding healthier alternatives to meet those needs.

Q & A

What is analysis paralysis?

Analysis paralysis is a state where an individual is unable to make decisions due to overthinking or over-analyzing a situation. It often occurs when faced with important life choices, such as career paths, relationships, or major life changes.

How does the brain contribute to analysis paralysis?

The brain contributes to analysis paralysis by making intentional miscalculations about the future, which are driven by a fear of potential losses. This fear is amplified by the brain's loss aversion mechanism, where the potential pain of loss is experienced more intensely than the pleasure of potential gains.

What is the science of loss aversion?

The science of loss aversion is a field of neuroeconomics that studies how individuals perceive losses more significantly than gains. It reveals that the brain values what is already owned more than potential gains and that the fear of loss can be amplified, leading to decision-making paralysis.

What role does dopamine play in decision-making?

Dopamine plays a crucial role in the brain's reward system. It is released in the ventral tegmental area and is associated with motivation, reward, and behavioral reinforcement. However, in the context of analysis paralysis, the potential gains do not activate this dopaminergic circuit as strongly as the fear of loss, leading to an imbalance in decision-making.

How does the duration of ownership affect the value of an object or decision?

The longer an individual owns an object or is in a situation, the more its value increases in their mind. This is due to the brain's loss aversion circuitry, which amplifies the perceived value of what is owned, making it harder to let go or make changes.

What is the temporal bias in decision-making?

The temporal bias refers to the brain's tendency to experience the pain of a potential future loss in the present moment, while the pleasure of a potential future gain cannot be experienced. This bias contributes to analysis paralysis by making losses seem more significant and immediate than potential gains.

How can one overcome analysis paralysis?

To overcome analysis paralysis, one can rearrange their thinking to prioritize their natural desires, extend their time scale to consider intermixed losses and gains, and reduce stress levels to decrease noradrenergic transmission. Additionally, externalizing attention away from internal focus can help reduce the impact of loss aversion.

Why does the order of thoughts matter in decision-making?

The order of thoughts matters because the first thought an individual has is more likely to influence their decision-making than subsequent thoughts. This is due to the brain giving more weight to initial considerations, which can be leveraged to overcome analysis paralysis.

How does emotional regulation help in overcoming analysis paralysis?

Emotional regulation techniques can help reduce the fear and anxiety associated with potential losses. By calming the amygdala, which is hyperactivated in loss aversion, individuals can diminish the negative emotional impact and make more balanced decisions.

What is the impact of stress on decision-making?

Stress increases noradrenergic transmission, which amplifies the pain of potential losses. This makes it more difficult to make decisions, as the fear of loss becomes more dominant. Reducing stress can help balance this impact and facilitate decision-making.

How does interoception influence susceptibility to loss aversion?

Interoception, or the focus on internal bodily sensations and emotions, makes individuals more sensitive to loss aversion. Being highly interoceptive can lead to a heightened awareness of potential losses, making it more challenging to act without fear of negative outcomes.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Understanding Analysis Paralysis and Loss Aversion

This paragraph introduces the concept of analysis paralysis, a state where individuals become overwhelmed by overthinking and are unable to make decisions. The speaker, a psychiatrist, explains how the brain's natural process of weighing pros and cons can lead to inaction due to the fear of negative outcomes. The discussion transitions into the science of loss aversion, highlighting that our brains may intentionally miscalculate the future, leading to paralysis. The speaker also promotes a guide to mental health that combines their experience as a monk and a psychiatrist.

05:02

🤯 The Neuroeconomics of Decision-Making

The speaker delves into the field of neuroeconomics, which merges psychology, neuroscience, and economics, to understand how the brain makes decisions. The focus is on the concept of loss aversion, where the brain values potential losses more than equivalent gains. The paragraph explains how the brain's fear circuitry, involving the amygdala and the ventral tegmental area, plays a significant role in decision-making. The speaker uses the example of a $5 bill and a $5 object to illustrate how the brain overvalues potential losses and undervalues potential gains, leading to analysis paralysis.

10:03

🔄 The Temporal and Interoceptive Biases

This paragraph discusses the temporal and interoceptive biases that affect decision-making. The speaker explains that the pain of a future loss can be experienced in the present, while the pleasure of a future gain cannot. This imbalance in the brain's perception leads to an overestimation of potential losses. The concept of 'duration of ownership' is introduced, where the longer one owns an object or holds onto a pattern of behavior, the more its perceived value increases, making it harder to let go and leading to analysis paralysis.

15:03

🎮 Gaming and the Dopaminergic Circuitry

The speaker addresses the issue of gaming addiction, explaining how games can trick the brain into substituting for real-life experiences. The discussion highlights the role of dopamine in reinforcing behaviors and the challenges of overcoming analysis paralysis related to gaming. The speaker suggests that changing the order of thoughts and externalizing attention can help in overcoming the paralysis and making decisions.

20:04

🌟 Overcoming Analysis Paralysis through Action

The speaker provides strategies to overcome analysis paralysis. The first strategy is to recognize the brain's tendency to overestimate losses and underestimate gains. The second is to reduce stress levels, which affects noradrenergic transmission and can lessen the impact of loss aversion. The third strategy is to externalize attention, focusing on the external world rather than internal signals, which can help in reducing the power of the loss aversion circuitry in the brain.

25:04

📚 Raising Healthy Gamers

In the final paragraph, the speaker briefly touches on the topic of raising children in the context of gaming. The speaker mentions a book, 'How to Raise a Healthy Gamer,' which combines neuroscience research with clinical practice to offer guidance on how to prevent gaming from becoming a substitute for real-life experiences.

Keywords

💡Analysis Paralysis

Analysis Paralysis refers to the state where an individual is unable to make decisions due to overthinking or excessive analysis of options and potential outcomes. In the context of the video, it is a common issue faced by people when trying to solve important life problems, such as choosing a college major or deciding whether to stay in a relationship. The video discusses how the brain's intentional miscalculations about the future can lead to this paralysis, preventing action.

💡Neuroeconomics

Neuroeconomics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that combines insights from psychology, neuroscience, and economics to understand how the brain makes decisions, especially regarding choices involving rewards or losses. The video highlights that neuroeconomics has revealed important insights into why people experience analysis paralysis, particularly through the concept of loss aversion.

💡Loss Aversion

Loss aversion is a psychological phenomenon where individuals prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. It is a key concept in neuroeconomics that explains why people may overemphasize potential losses when making decisions, leading to analysis paralysis. The brain tends to calculate future losses as more significant than potential gains, which can result in inaction.

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a significant role in the brain's reward system. It is associated with motivation, pleasure, and reinforcement of behavior. In the context of the video, dopamine is linked to the ventral tegmental area, which is involved in the brain's decision-making process by providing motivation and reward signals.

💡Amygdala

The amygdala is an almond-shaped region in the brain that is involved in processing emotions, particularly fear and anxiety. In the video, it is described as a part of the brain that contributes to loss aversion by predicting losses and generating fear responses, which can lead to analysis paralysis when overactive.

💡Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a region in the brain that is a key part of the dopaminergic system, responsible for producing motivation, reward, and reinforcement of behavior. In the video, the VTA is highlighted as a crucial component in the brain's decision-making circuitry, working alongside the amygdala to weigh potential rewards against potential losses.

💡Striatum

The striatum is a part of the brain's basal ganglia that plays a significant role in decision-making processes, integrating inputs from various brain regions, including the VTA and amygdala, to produce a final decision. In the video, the striatum is where the reward signals from the VTA and the fear signals from the amygdala combine to result in a decision, which can be influenced by loss aversion.

💡Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation refers to the ability to manage and control one's emotions, particularly in response to stress or challenging situations. In the video, emotional regulation is suggested as a strategy to reduce the impact of loss aversion and analysis paralysis by calming the amygdala's fear response, making it easier to make decisions.

💡Interoception

Interoception is the process of being aware of and paying attention to internal bodily sensations and emotions. In the video, it is mentioned that individuals who are more interoceptive may be more vulnerable to loss aversion because they are more attuned to their internal environment and the negative signals it sends. However, this can be mitigated by externalizing attention.

💡Temporal Bias

Temporal bias refers to the tendency of the brain to give more weight to immediate outcomes over future outcomes, even when those future outcomes are more likely or have a greater impact. In the context of the video, temporal bias contributes to loss aversion by allowing the brain to experience the pain of a future loss in the present, while not allowing the pleasure of a future gain to be felt until it actually occurs.

💡Stress Reduction

Stress reduction involves techniques and strategies to lower the body's stress response, which can include physical activities, relaxation techniques, or mental practices. In the video, stress reduction is recommended as a way to decrease noradrenergic transmission, which in turn can reduce the impact of loss aversion and make decision-making easier.

Highlights

Analysis paralysis is a common issue where individuals become overwhelmed by the need to solve important life problems, leading to inaction.

The mind engages in logical calculations, weighing pros and cons, but often fails to reach a decision due to fear of negative outcomes.

The science of loss aversion explains why people may intentionally miscalculate the future, leading to paralysis in decision-making.

Neuroeconomics is an emerging field that combines psychology, neuroscience, and economics to understand human behavior and decision-making.

The brain's ventral tegmental area and amygdala play significant roles in motivation, fear, and decision-making processes.

Loss aversion circuitry in the brain can be understood to overcome analysis paralysis by recognizing its impact on decision-making.

The duration of ownership of an object or activity increases its perceived value, making it harder to let go or change course.

Temporal bias affects decision-making by allowing the pain of future losses to be felt in the present, while future rewards cannot be experienced.

The brain放大s the perception of loss by a factor of two, while potential gains are reduced by half, leading to an imbalance in decision-making.

Intermixed losses and gains, such as playing multiple rounds of a game, reduce the pain of individual losses.

Extending the decision-making timeline can alleviate the fear of making the wrong choice, as it allows for more opportunities to correct course.

Emotional regulation techniques can help reduce the impact of loss aversion by calming the amygdala's response.

Reducing noradrenergic transmission, which can be achieved through stress reduction and better sleep, can lessen the power of loss aversion.

Interoception, or attention to internal states, can increase vulnerability to loss aversion, making externalizing attention a helpful strategy.

Analysis paralysis can be mitigated by focusing on the first thought that arises, as it holds more motivational weight.

The key to overcoming analysis paralysis is not necessarily making the right decision, but rather achieving a state of mental well-being that allows for clear decision-making.

Gaming addiction is a complex issue that tricks the brain into using games as a substitute for meeting psychological needs.

Dr. K's guide to mental health offers a Choose Your Own Adventure format combining over two decades of experience as a monk and psychiatrist.

Transcripts

today we're going to talk about analysis

[Music]

paralysis as a psychiatrist I've worked

with a ton of people who get paralyzed

with over analysis so they're trying to

solve problems in their life really

important problems like what should I

major in in college should I stay in

this relationship should I quit this job

should I pursue my dreams or should I do

something that gives me a stable income

and as we're faced with all of these

problems our minds starts logic through

things it makes calculations it says

okay we could do this we could do this

here are the benefits here are the cons

and at the end of the day though the

Mind ends up warning us because what if

things go wrong what if you break up

with this person and you can't find

someone else what if you choose to study

this in college but then you can't find

a job so in all of these situations of

analysis paralysis we make calculations

and then our mind warns us of the

consequences and no matter how many

times we think through things

we can't seem to find an answer that

prompts us to action and the reason for

that is because our brain is making

intentional

miscalculations about the future that

end up paralyzing us and this is the

science of loss aversion hey all' if

you're interested in applying some of

the principles that we share to actually

create change in your life check out Dr

K's guide to mental health it combines

over two decades of my experience of

both being a monk and a psychiatrist and

distills all of the most important

things I've learned into a Choose Your

Own Adventure format so check out the

link in the bio and start your journey

today so this is super cool because this

research comes out of the field of

neuroeconomics this is part of the

reason why no one really understands

this because this is an emerging field

see we used to have psychology which

started with people like Sigman Freud

and Yung and stuff like that and now we

have things like psycho therapy and we

have therapists who understand all of

these things about human behavior and

then we have stuff like Neuroscience we

started doing brain scans but the people

who are doing brain scans aren't

actually helping human beings change

their behavior and then we have the

field of Economics which is about how

human beings make choices and so

something really cool has happened which

is that in the last decade or so these

three Fields have merged into something

called

neuroeconomics and the revelations from

neuroeconomics are fascinating and one

of the most important things that we've

discovered which a lot of therapists

don't understand we're not trained in

this stuff is about loss aversion so if

we want to understand how to overcome

analysis paralysis it turns out that

neuroeconomics gives us a really good

insight into how our brain makes

decisions and how there are certain

parts of the brain that will keep you

paralyzed because they are afraid of the

consequences the crazy thing is that

these parts of the brain actually make

incorrect calculations which is part of

the reason why we when you do something

that's really difficult right often

times you'll have this experience of

like oh it wasn't that bad after all and

if you stop and think about it for a

second how is it that you thought it was

going to be so bad and it turns out to

not be that bad after all that's because

your brain is making an intentional

miscalculation so let's start by

understanding the basic circuitry of

loss aversion and once we understand

this we'll understand why we end up in

analysis paralysis and what to do about

it so let's take a quick look at the

circuits of the brain that are involved

in loss aversion so the first is the

ventral tegmental area which is also

governed by dopamine so this is our

dopaminergic Circuit of the brain this

provides motivation reward and

behavioral reinforcement all right so

this is the part of our brain that tells

us to do it but when we make a decision

down here we also have another part of

our brain we have our amygdala our lyic

system this one is also NORAD energic

and this will become important later but

this is what gives us fear or predicts

losses okay so what ends up happening is

this Circuit of the brain and this

Circuit of the brain each generate a

response that then combine together into

some kind of calculation in the striatum

and then this results in some kind of

decision so let's just think through

this okay anytime we're trying to think

about the decision we think about the

reward we think about what's the

advantage of doing this this is done by

the VTA and then we also think about the

consequence okay like should I break up

with this person or not well let's see

like if I break up with this person

maybe I'll feel alone maybe I won't find

someone will I be able to find someone

and there's a lot of uncertainty here

and then what happens is we sort of end

up over here and unless this decision is

made in the right way or unless this

calculation is in the right way we end

up not making a decision so this seems

super simple right we think about the

potential advantages we think about the

the potential consequences and then we

result in the decision and the reason

that I'm paralyzed is because I don't

have enough information to make the

appropriate calculation so it feels like

in my brain I'm spinning my wheels I

think through the same stuff over and

over and over again but this remains a

question mark there's no decision to be

made because I need more information

turns out that the reason that you can't

make a decision is because this guy over

here is intentionally

divorced from reality and this is insane

and if we want to overcome analysis

paralysis what we actually need to do is

re in this Circuit of the brain to be

more commensurate with reality and once

it is more commensurate with reality our

ability to act will become easier so let

me just give you all a simple example of

this right so anytime you have analysis

paralysis what it boils down to is you

can't act because what if someone

something goes wrong right that's the

essence of it so your brain is worried

about a potential loss all of this

effort without some kind of gain what if

I put in all of this effort resources

time energy and what if it doesn't work

out so your mind is predicting the loss

and if you sort of think about it that's

why you can't act right because there

could be a potential loss there could be

something that goes wrong and then all

my effort is wasted so if you really

look at what paralyzes you it's not the

calculation it's that there's a chance

that something could go wrong if I could

eliminate the chance that something

could go wrong or reduce the chance that

something could go wrong would it be

easier for you to act and if the answer

to that question is yes we're going to

show you exactly how to do that so this

is where we get to a couple of

experiments about

neuroeconomics and this is what's really

weird Okay so a lot of the stuff isn't

going to make logical sense because it's

not logical because our brain works in

an illogical way so the first principle

that we understand is that if I have $5

and I have an object that is worth

$5 these are not worth the same in my

mind literally what my brain does is

anytime I'm thinking about purchasing

something okay so I have the $5 in my

hand I want to buy a $5 object what my

brain does is thinks about all of the

possibilities of the $5 right I could do

this with $5 I could buy that I could

get a coffee I could get a digital

cosmetic I could to order a book on sale

I could do all of these things with $5

oh my God imagine all the stuff I could

do with $5 and then what happens is we

think about the object itself and what

what does the object do it can only do

one thing so then my brain decides okay

even though these two things are

technically worth the same my brain

values the $5 more now that may make

perfect sense but now this is when

things get weird so let's say I have an

object with $5 worth $5 sorry and I'm

thinking about selling the object so

then what happen happens is my brain

does the opposite it actually thinks to

myself oh my God I have this $5 coffee

mug this is the best coffee mug I enjoy

this coffee mug every single day it's

really crazy but like man I love this

coffee mug so much and if I sold it I

wouldn't be able to you know use this

coffee mug anymore and so now what we

sort of think about is the value of the

object and then we end up thinking a

little bit about the value of $5 so I

know it SS kind of weird but like

there's very little value in the $5 if

we already own the object so this is

what's kind of weird but the science of

loss aversion teaches us that that which

you already own is worth more to you

than a possibility of something else now

this may sound kind of weird but I want

youall to just think about this for a

second okay so anytime you're thinking

about let's say should I major in this

particular thing in college should I

study this in college so if you sort of

think about it in that moment what you

own is a lot of free time right so this

is your time you haven't committed to a

major what you own In This Moment is the

possibility of choosing the right thing

there are a lot of sort of things that

you own already I know it sounds kind of

weird but this is how it works and then

the moment that you commit to something

it's either it works out or it doesn't

work out but right now before you make a

choice you have all of these

possibilities available this is like

having the $5 and then the other thing

that's really weird about this is that

the duration of ownership matters so the

longer that you hold the $5 or the

longer that you own the object the more

it is worth to you and this explains why

this is really confusing but a lot of

people I work with Will let's say waste

their life playing video games they say

I've been playing video games for 10

years and oh my God people think that

logically if you've been wasting your

life for 10 years then that you should

be more motivated to do something with

it right so if it's like okay I wasted a

day like not that big of a deal but once

I waste a month I'll be more motivated

if I waste a year I'll I'll be more

motivated because I have all this

catching up to do but the science of

loss aversion teaches us that the longer

that you hold in a particular pattern

the longer that you engage in this dopam

energic activity the more it matters to

you the more that it be you become

attached to it and the harder it is to

give up so we literally value things

that we've been doing and things that we

own for a longer period of time so the

value of that which you own is worth

more to you than a potential possibility

and this explains some of our analysis

paralysis because if I'm in a

relationship let's say and the

relationship isn't very good good let's

say it's only a two out of 10 and I look

at the rest of the world and I think to

myself okay there's a lot of people out

there that I could have a five out of 10

relationship with the problem is that

once you already own this relationship

your brain amplifies this by two to

three times literally we sort of know

what the number is and this also changes

with the duration of the ownership so

the longer that you've been in a

relationship the more that your brain

values it even if objectively it is not

worth very much okay so now we begin to

see one calculation and this will fit in

more but that the duration of ownership

and what you own actually increases the

value of something in your mind even if

it is it objectively worth less we'll

talk about how to deal with that

information how to use it more

applicably but this is the first bias

that we need to understand the second

thing that we need to understand is a

temporal bias now this is going to sound

kind of confusing like a lot of stuff in

this video because a lot of stuff is not

logical because it's actually divorced

from reality so let's understand the the

temporal bias okay so remember we have

the ventral tegmental area which gives

us dopamine which gives us our

experience of a reward and then we have

our amydala which gives us our fear

which gives us our projection of loss so

here I am am trying to make a decision

about the future so I don't know if this

makes sense but when we make a decision

about the future when we're worrying

about the future the pain of a future

loss can be experienced today but the

dopamine reward from a future

accomplishment cannot be experienced

today this is screwed up so anytime you

sort of look at something that you're

doing right let's say I'm picking a a

major in college so the exhilaration of

graduating four years from now with a

degree doesn't give me any dopamine it's

just a possibility it doesn't activate

this part of my brain thinking about the

future thinking about how much fun a

game is going to be does not release a

surge of dopamine the thing that is

screwed up about our brain is that a

future loss can be experience today so

literally if you were stuck in analysis

paralysis and you're thinking about the

benefits and you're thinking about the

losses the pain of the loss can be

experienced in the present moment even

if you haven't lost anything and it is

that pain of loss right that you

experience over here this you get this

signal we get this one right so this one

actually comes in to our brain is like

ouch this hurts but we don't get any of

the perspective pleasure this remains

empty and what this results in is it

keeps us stuck and if only things were

that easy it turns out that things are

actually even worse than this so it

isn't just that you can experience a

future loss in the present which will

paralyze you from acting because it

hurts so much it's that the amount of

loss that you experience is two times

what it actually is okay so this is

literally what we know so when our brain

makes a calculation about the future it

cuts the reward in 50% or 1/2 and it

actually does doubles the size of the

loss so let's take a quick look at a

paper that sort of illustrates how

screwed up this is so while potential

loss had a significantly greater effect

on Choice than potential gain in both

adolescence and adults this is looking

at specifically adolescence but the key

thing here to understand is that we

value losses more than we value gains by

a factor of about two so I know that

sounds kind of bizarre but what that

literally means is anytime you are faced

with some kind of analysis problem is

your brain is actually doubling the cost

of what you're trying to do and cutting

in half the benefit of what you're

trying to do and if you've kind of gone

through life you've sort of noticed this

right you've noticed that okay you're

really worried about something going

wrong and your brain is like this could

go wrong and this could go wrong and

everything could fall apart and then you

end up doing it and you're like you know

what it wasn't that bad after all I see

this a lot even in children who are

getting vaccines or getting injections

where it's like okay the kid is

terrified of the shot oh my God the shot

is going to hurt so much but you get the

shot it lasts like less than 5 seconds

and then you kind of feel fine and

everything is okay and so it turns out

that because of evolutionary reasons our

brain has learned how to

amplify prospective losses in order to

protect us from making mistakes but the

world that we live in now has changed

drastically from when we were like

primates living in the wilderness and we

were like trying to figure out whether

we should try to hunt down this deer

when we also see tiger tracks so this is

the problem the world that we live in

today has a lot of uncertainty and in

all of this uncertainty there are a lot

of possible losses that you could

experience the challenge is that in your

brain all of those possible losses

literally activate your loss experience

in the brain they activate your fear

response Center they activate your

amydala and those things decrease your

motivation they make it hard for you to

act so not only is this temporal

component where we can experience the

losses of the future in the present and

we can't experience the gains but also

there is an amplification of this signal

so now the question becomes what on

Earth do we do about it and this is

where there's good news because in the

same way that our brain is kind of

screwed up there are other Revelations

that we have that can help us almost

trick the brain into overcoming analysis

paralysis and acting the first thing

that we need to talk about is order of

operations so I don't know if yall

remember this but if we kind of go back

up here we remember that that which we

own already is worth more than a

prospective gain right so if we kind of

go back to this idea of the $5 in our

hand versus the $5 object this is worth

more so in our brain literally the order

of our thoughts matters and I'll give

you a very very simple example of this

so you wake up in the morning and you

say I want to play video games and then

your brain says but I should work I want

to game but I should dot dot dot and if

you pay attention to your thoughts in

analysis paralysis what you will find is

some combination of this structure all

the time right I really don't want to be

in this relationship but I could be

alone forever I really do want to be in

this relationship but I have feelings

for this other person so we have all of

these kinds of initial thought followed

by but dot dot dot so this is where once

again neuroeconomics teaches us

something really interesting whatever

thought you think first is worth way

more in your decision making than the

thought afterward the first thought is

more more likely to be what you go with

than the second thought and I've seen

this in my work as an addiction

psychiatrist so what I've noticed when I

sort of read this paper it sort of

clicked with me because when I work with

people who are addicted to stuff what I

noticed is that the order of their

thoughts changes hey I really want to

have a drink today but I shouldn't and

then eventually what starts to happen is

they wake up in the morning they say wow

I I really need to take care of X Y and

Z today I have this to do I have this to

do man it would be really nice to have a

drink so what starts happen is the

temporal order of their thoughts changes

and what neuroeconomics teaches us is

whichever thought you think first is

going to have a stronger motivational

impact so if you are trying to do

something I know this sounds kind of

weird but what we really want you to do

is think in the direction that you

naturally want to go first right so if

you're trying to struggle with gaming

addiction wake up first thing in the

morning and think to yourself this is

what I really need to accomplish today

right so start immediately thinking

about the direction that you want to

move in and then your mind will come up

with other reasons but I want a game and

I'm not saying that this is going to

work 100% there's more to it but we

actually know from studies of

neuroeconomics that if you can change

the order of your thinking it will start

to result in a motivational change and

can potentially move you in the right

direction the second thing that we're

going to talk about is intermixed losses

this one is huge so here's what we know

imagine for a moment that you are

playing one game of your favorite

whatever mobile FPS whatever you're

queuing up for one round of something if

that game is a loss how much does it

hurt right if you play one game a day

and you lose it hurts a lot and in fact

if you're like me you never just play

one game a day right if you only could

play one game a day and there are times

in your life where you could queue up

for one round you actually don't because

what if the game goes bad you don't want

to just play one game and lose but if

you have 10 hours to play You're Going

to queue up 10 times you can afford to

lose the first game it's not that big of

a deal so if we look at these two

scenarios and they're literally the same

right so I've played one game and I've

lost that one game but in one scenario

this is okay let's just queue up and

play another in the other scenario this

hurts a lot because things have ended so

this is another thing that we understand

about loss aversion when we set a

particular end point the possibility of

a loss hurts way more but if we have

intermixed losses and gains which means

we have some wins and some losses each

of those losses hurts way less so what

this practically means is if you're

thinking about picking a particular

major in college you sort of pick your

end point in your mind at four years and

you think to yourself at the end of four

years what if I've made a mistake oh my

God I don't know what to do what if I

picked the wrong thing and then I can't

find a job job because that's our

particular end point so the way that we

frame the end determines how much the

loss hurts and remember the more that

the loss hurts the more it activates our

amydala and the more paralyzed it keeps

us so let me give you all a different

scenario let's say I said okay you've

got 10 years to figure out what you're

going to do with your life you've got 10

years to sort out your career are you

willing to spend four out of your 10

years to go to college and get a

particular degree now just think about

how different that feels right picking a

major that will determine the rest of

your life versus you've got 10 years to

figure it out University or college is

an option you can spend four years doing

that and you've got 6 years left if

things don't work out just notice how

different that feels mentally and this

is because we are now utilizing

intermixed losses and gains so what we

want to practically do is if you are

paralyzed with some kind kind of

analysis chances are you are looking at

an end point and that end point if you

extend it further out instead of saying

is this the right person for me or not

should I break up with this person or

not break up with this person try to add

more time to the end of it try to really

think about things in terms of

intermixed losses and gains this may

actually particularly go wrong that may

happen you know there's no way we can't

predict we don't know that things aren't

going to go wrong but the more time that

we add to the end of our mental equation

the easier it is to act now remember

that the goal of this video is not to

say that you should act or shouldn't act

it's to help you overcome analysis

paralysis and one of the most powerful

things that keeps us paralyzed is a

particular conception of endpoint as you

extend that end point out it will be

easier to act and now we get to the

third thing so the third thing is

actually going to be a combination of a

couple of things and what we're going to

do is go back to our core structure

because we know that there are multiple

things that modify this core structure

Okay so we've got dopamine we've got

noradrenergic transmission over here and

now this is going to become important so

remember I said that there's a box over

here and then we end up with a decision

so now we're going to learn about how to

fix this system and what's in the box

okay so the first thing is remember that

this side gets Amplified by 2X and this

side gets cut in half okay so the first

thing that we can do is is sort of

cognitively recognize that right so

recognize just notice that your mind is

making things twice as bad as they

should be and that the gains are going

to be half as much as what you expect

unless you're on Wall Street bets in

which case it's all screwed up which is

why it's a beautiful corner of the

internet okay so now let's understand a

couple of things the more that you can

engage in emotional regulation the

easier this equation will be so this is

a problem that we run into with analysis

paralysis we turn to logic or

calculations right we think about a lot

of variables A + B plus C minus and

here's the loss aversion stuff but this

could go wrong this could go wrong this

could go wrong and then we don't know

what to do so the cool thing is that we

tend to think that if we logically think

through this equation over and over and

over again like we're some math

professor right who's working on some

famous equation that eventually we'll

figure it out that's not what we need to

do if we literally engage in emotional

regulation techniques we will diminish

the size of these variables and it will

be easier to act we've talked a lot in

our Channel about different ways to

regulate emotions and alexiy and all

this kind of stuff but literally if you

have analysis paralysis you don't need

more information you don't need to spend

more time calculating you need to calm

down your amydala so at least you can go

from a 2X to a 1x estimation which is

literally what we we know from the

science of neuroeconomics and loss

aversion if you can employ emotional

regulation strategies it will be easier

to make a decision because you're a

migdala will not be controlling you okay

and remember also that this is a rigged

game because you don't get any benefit

of dopamine from a hypothetical but you

do suffer from a potential loss A

hypothetical loss in the present which

is completely screwed up okay the next

thing that we can do is reduce our

noradrenergic transmission so let's take

a quick look at a paper that sort of

illustrates this LW aversion might rely

on a similar amygdala strial nor

adrenergic circuit in hu in humans

supporting this hypothesis positron

emission tomography essays essays of

neuroadrenergic activity have found that

individuals with lower adrenergic

transporter density presumably leading

to this is the key thing greater nor

adrenergic transmission are more levere

this is what this is the sentence that

we're looking at okay so I know it's

kind of like weird because I just read a

bunch of crap but I've deciphered this

stuff for you here's the the takeaway

the more adrenergic transmission you

have the more power loss aversion will

have over you so I want you all to

really think about this too okay because

this is weird so when you think

something is going to go wrong what I

want youall to understand is that the

way that your brain calculates what goes

wrong is not based on reality it depends

on the level of your noradrenergic

transmission so then the question

becomes how can we reduce noradrenergic

transmission and this is huge so stress

fatigue inability to sleep all of these

things increase your noradrenergic

transmission right so what we literally

know is that when you are stressed out

in some way your cortisol levels

increase your adrenaline levels increase

and then related to Adrenaline is also

noradrenaline so like we have

epinephrine we have norepinephrine so

all of this these kinds of stress

hormones will literally amplify the pain

of a potential loss as we amplify the

pain of a potential loss it becomes

difficult for you to act so let's kind

of come back to our example should I

major in this thing and if you look at

people in college you'll notice that

some of them you're like how the hell do

these people do this they just pick a

major and they seem to be excited in

life but I am not able to be excited I

am so worried and you look at those

people and they're happy go-lucky

they're chilling they're vibing they're

able to enjoy things and that's because

their adrenergic their noradrenergic

level is low they are less stressed out

and we seem to think that okay they have

figured everything out which is why they

are so Carefree we think that once I

figure everything out then I will be

carefree the beauty of what

neuroeconomics teaches us is it's

literally the other way around you be

carefree first and then it will be very

easy to make decision and you may say to

yourself but Dr K that's not going to

work because I can't be carefree until I

make this decision and this is exactly

the intervention that we need to talk

about that is factually incorrect what

we know from yogic principles of

Detachment and Vaga and all of these

other things is that you literally if

you decrease your stress level by yoga

or meditation or even sleeping a full

night or reducing your caffeine intake

or reducing your substance use intake is

that your stress level will objectively

go down anything that you can do to

decrease your noradrenergic transmission

will make you more Carefree the more

Carefree you are the easier it is to

make a decision and then we come to the

last thing which is where we are the

most screwed especially in this

community so the last variable to

consider is interception so the more

interceptive you are the more loss of AV

verion will hurt so what does

interception mean so generally speaking

if we look at human beings they pay

attention to two different things some

people pay attention to the outside

world and some people pay attention to

the inside world so if you know people

who pay attention to the outside world

they can be a little bit more

materialistic right there're they're not

so aware of what's going on in here

they're not focused on how the bag that

they purchase let's say I purchase some

designer bag and then that bag makes me

happy so some people are like wow this

bag is really great and then there are

people like me and probably like you

because you're here you pay attention to

in here wow look at this happiness that

I feel from this bag our focus is not in

the outside world our focus is in our

internal environment and the more

interoceptive you are the more

vulnerable you are to loss aversion and

the amydala kind of gets hyperactivated

so people in our community especially

pay a lot of attention to themselves

right they're thinking a lot internally

they're feeling a lot internally they're

paying attention to their internal

signals it makes you awesome it's a big

advantage in spiritual growth because

the more inter receptive you are the

easier it is or the more tuned you are

to your internal environment the problem

is that generally speaking if we kind of

think about it right spiritual growth in

worldly success tend to be viewed in

some ways as opposite ends of the

spectrum and so as our interception

increases as we pay attention to more

internal signals and these can be our

thoughts they can be the logical ways

that we calculate through things they

can be our internal emotional

environment the more vulnerable we are

to all of this loss aversion circuitry

so the solution there is to externalize

your attention and the very practical

way to think about this is to simply

just do things that move your attention

outside of your head so if you are

struggling with analysis paralysis where

is the focus of your attention logic

calculation fear instead what you need

to do is have conversations collect data

and data is not reading random crap on

the internet right go and talk to people

explore things take a look at actual

data if you can right so the more that

you can externalize your attention you

can even do things like talk with other

human beings about other things you can

go for a walk you can play with a dog

you can go to a yoga studio you can go

out for a cup of coffee whatever it is

you can smell smell the roses right like

whatever you want to do the more that

you externalize your attention

literally what happens is this amydala

loss aversion circuitry in your brain

starts to become less powerful as that

loss aversion circuitry becomes less

powerful it becomes easier to act so

let's summarize so a lot of people today

struggle with analysis paralysis we have

all kinds of problems around gender

Dynamics and dating and professional

careers and inflation we have all of

these problems the world is filled with

uncertainty so when our brain is filled

with this and anytime we think about

acting we think about the pros and we

think about the cons cons the problem is

that anytime we think about the cons it

activates our negative emotional

circuitry as we activate our leg

negative emotional circuitry we feel the

pain of a hypothetical loss in the

present and that pain of the

hypothetical loss because it cannot be

balanced by the pleasure of a

hypothetical gain right so I can think

about what it feels like to get dumped

by my girlfriend or boyfriend but I

cannot experience the pleasure of a

hypothetical orgasm if I do not get

dumped this is a fundamental mismatch

with the way that our brain

experiences potential gains and

potential losses and since we have this

imbalance it biases us towards the loss

and so literally our brain experiences

more loss than gain when we're making a

calculation so what do we do about this

so our brain is kind of weird but there

are a couple things we can take

advantage of the first is that the first

thought that we have is worth more in

terms of motivation and action than the

second thought we have so literally

rearrange your thinking as best as you

can the second thing to consider is

intermixed losses and gains if we pick a

particular Endo that will hurt so much

more so instead what we want to do is

extend our time scale and give ourselves

more time for wins and losses because if

you really think about analysis

paralysis what is it that paralyzes you

it's this concept of if there is a

setback it's all over right if I break

up with this person I it's all over I'll

never find anyone ever again so really

pay attention to where is the end point

in your mind and the third thing is

really looking at sort of the

Neuroscience of that circuit and there

are three three things that we can do

emotionally reduce our fear and loss

aversion will get better secondly we can

reduce our stress level which affects

our noradrenergic circuitry which means

that if you are stuck in analysis

paralysis the most important thing that

you can do is to get a good night's

sleep remember that it's not making the

right decision that makes you chill it

is becoming chill first that allows you

to make the right decision and this is

also where people get so stuck right

because so many people I've worked with

assume that their mental well-being is a

consequence of the right decision that's

why you're so paralyzed because

if you make the wrong decision then your

life is ruined so it becomes so

important you're so stressed out about

it it's literally the other way around

become stressfree first vagia Detachment

check out our guides check out our other

videos we have lots of resources on that

and decisions will become easy the last

thing is y'all like me have an advantage

and disadvantage during the character

creation screen we picked interoceptive

interoceptive means you're thoughtful

you're careful you're spiritual but you

also amplify the negative signals of

loss aversion so the more that you can

externalize your attention the better

off you'll be so I'd love it if y'all

could give this stuff A shot and let me

know how it works for you hey Dr K how

do I get my kid to put down the game

without it being a fight every single

time the problem with gaming is that it

tricks our brain into being a substitute

for Life once we start to get our

psychological needs met through the game

that's when we become addicted how to

raise a healthy gamer combines the

latest in Neuroscience research along

with a decade of clinical practice check

it out anywhere books are

[Music]

sold