Chuck

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's not actually causing the pleasure.

It's just influencing how your brain is taking all this stuff in, basically.

And there are a couple of different ways of looking at how this happens.

There's one theory called a that it's prediction error.

So you get you get more bang for your buck.

Basically, you expected to like that peanut butter pie.

But this was the best peanut butter pie you've ever had.

Maybe the best dessert you've ever had in your life.

And you're like, wow, that your brain says that was way, way better than I thought it was going to be.

So it reinforces it.

Yeah.

The other way of thinking about it is the dopamine itself is the motivational signal.

So it's what makes me get out of that bed and put on my clothes and actually go down those stairs because I'm motivated to go get that reward.

Great scene.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then jumping back to that first one, the prediction error, they've done research on people who gamble, who play cards and play the slot machines and stuff.

And they, their brains experience, uh, about the same amount of dopamine activity when they almost win.

Like you got that big pot in the middle of the table, you're playing poker and you'd lose at the last second.

Uh,