Michael Easter07 October 2023

Why Can’t Humans Do Anything In Moderation? - Michael Easter - #690

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18Insights

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 2

Myth Buster08:00

The 'No Clocks, No Right Angles' Casino Myths Don't Hold Up

Easter says the popular explanations for why casinos are designed to make you gamble more — no right angles, music in the key of C, no clocks — don't actually check out when you look closely. Real casinos are full of right angles (like slot machine screens) and other businesses without clocks, like Walmart or Costco, don't have the same effect.

Researchers claimed casinos avoid right angles, use relaxing 'key of C' music, and remove clocks to encourage overspending.
Slot machine screens are literally boxes — full of right angles — so that claim falls apart on inspection.
A slot machine audio composer told Easter he uses all different musical keys, not just C.
Walmart, Target, and Costco also lack clocks and aren't casinos, undercutting the clock theory.

“He goes no, where the hell did you hear that? He's like, I use all different keys.”
Michael Easter · 08:45

#gambling#myth-busting#casinos#psychology

Myth Buster26:30

The Vietnam Heroin Study That Undermines 'Addiction Is a Disease'

Easter challenges the modern framing of addiction as purely a brain disease you can't recover from. He cites 'Operation Golden Flow,' where roughly 25% of US soldiers in Vietnam were addicted to heroin, yet after mandatory clean urine tests to return home, the vast majority got clean and very few relapsed — mostly only those who'd used drugs before deployment.

Easter defines addiction as needing three things: a person with problems, a substance that relieves them, and no other means of fixing those problems.
NIDA's official position treats addiction as a compulsive, recurring brain disease with low recovery odds.
In Operation Golden Flow, ~25% of US soldiers in Vietnam were addicted to heroin.
Nixon required a clean urine test before soldiers could return home — the vast majority passed, got clean, and rarely relapsed.

“If addiction is something that is near impossible to get over... you would think we would have left 25% of soldiers in Vietnam. The reality…”
Michael Easter · 27:10

“I can speak about this because I'm a person who is nine years sober now going on 10 — nothing fixes a problem like using…”
Michael Easter · 29:35

#addiction#psychology#history#recovery

Hot Take· 1

Hot Take44:00

Modern Fame Requires No Achievement, Just Timing

Chris Williamson and Michael Easter discuss how fame has shifted from being a marker of genuine accomplishment to something obtainable purely through being 'in the right place at the right time,' citing reality TV contestants who gain millions of followers and brand deals within weeks without having done anything notable.

Historically, fame required doing something (good or bad) significant enough for media gatekeepers to cover you.
Today anyone can broadcast themselves directly, bypassing that gatekeeping filter entirely.
Reality TV shows pluck ordinary people who emerge with millions of followers and brand deals in weeks.
Williamson argues the shift from judging people by deeds to judging by opinions/words is 'a very dangerous position to be in.'

“Now people just want to be famous for its own sake, because what fame is is the promise of obligation-free status.”
Chris Williamson · 43:30

“The move from people being judged by their deeds to people being judged by their opinions has meant that words carry more weight than actions.”
Chris Williamson · 45:00

#fame#social-media#status#culture

Explainer· 6

Explainer10:00

97% of Pigeons Choose to Gamble Even Though It Means Less Food

Easter recounts psychologist Thomas Zentall's research (following on from Skinner's rat studies) showing that pigeons overwhelmingly prefer an unpredictable-reward game over a predictable one, even when the unpredictable option yields less food overall. Zentall believes this wiring likely traces back to how ancestral humans and animals had to repeatedly search unpredictable environments for food.

Skinner accidentally discovered rats became more hooked on levers when treats were given unpredictably rather than on a schedule.
Thomas Zentall (PhD, UC Berkeley, studying since 1968) extended this to pigeons with a 'gambling' game vs a predictable-reward game.
97% of pigeons chose the unpredictable/gambling option despite getting less total food.
Zentall links this to ancestral foraging: repeated searching with occasional 'jackpot' food finds reinforced the behavior.

“This guy has basically found that it's pretty easy to turn a pigeon into a degenerate gambler... 97% of pigeons choose the unpredictable reward game.”
Michael Easter · 11:00

#psychology#behavioral-science#reward-systems#evolution

Explainer12:00

Why Anticipation Feels Better Than the Reward Itself

Discussing pleasure and reward, Easter and host Chris Williamson explore why the anticipation of something good often outshines the moment it happens. A nightlife industry study tracking happiness levels throughout a night out found people were happiest getting ready with friends beforehand, not during the peak of the night itself.

Sam Harris and Andrew Huberman both note the peak of pleasure is the moment just before something turns out better than expected.
A study pinged nightlife-goers from 3pm to 3am tracking happiness — the happiest point was pre-going-out, getting ready with friends.
Applies to launch sequences, unread comments, and anticipation-based marketing.
Gambling designers deliberately exploit this: the excitement is in the dice rolling or reels spinning, not the result.

“Anticipation is the bullseye of happiness.”
Chris Williamson · 13:00

“Gambling isn't when you know whether you won or loss, it's when the dice are rolling across the table.”
Michael Easter · 14:05

#psychology#happiness#marketing#anticipation

Explainer15:30

How Robinhood and Temu Weaponized Casino Mechanics

Easter explains how modern apps borrowed slot-machine design principles to drive engagement. Robinhood removed trading fees to enable rapid repeat trades and even added a spin-the-wheel feature (later pulled by regulators), while Temu — which Easter calls 'the crystal methamphetamine of shopping' — opens with a spin-for-a-bargain wheel and constant time-limited deals.

Robinhood's 'payment for order flow' model baked in fees so users could trade rapidly and repeatedly, unlike prior brokers.
Robinhood added a literal spin-the-wheel feature; regulators forced them to remove it for being too casino-like.
Spinning a wheel for a discount on shopping sites reportedly increases conversion rates sevenfold.
Temu structures its entire shopping experience like a casino — limited-time bargains, spin-to-win, factory-direct urgency.

“I would compare it [Temu] to the crystal methamphetamine of shopping.”
Michael Easter · 17:15

#apps#gamification#fintech#ecommerce

Explainer38:00

The Zeigarnik Effect: Why Your Brain Can't Let Go of Unfinished Things

Easter explains a classic psychology finding: waiters could recall complex, un-notated orders in vivid detail while a table's order was still open, but lost that memory almost entirely the moment the order closed. He ties this 'open loop' compulsion to everything from missing-child anguish to why cliffhangers work in books and TV.

The study found servers had near-perfect recall of open orders but forgot them almost immediately once the table closed out.
Human brains are wired to fixate on unresolved ('open loop') situations far more than resolved ones.
Parents of long-missing children often say not knowing is worse than confirmed bad news.
Cliffhangers in books and Netflix shows exploit this same open-loop discomfort.

“Our brains abhor an open loop.”
Chris Williamson · 39:05

“As soon as the tables had been closed, they had zero memory of what they'd done.”
Michael Easter · 38:50

#psychology#memory#zeigarnik-effect#storytelling

Explainer41:00

Authentic vs Hubristic Pride: Two Very Different Ways to Chase Status

Easter references researcher Jessica Tracy's work distinguishing 'authentic pride' — genuine satisfaction from accomplishment, whether anyone sees it or not — from 'hubristic pride,' which is self-promotion without underlying achievement. He notes hubristic pride was easier to spot in small ancestral communities but is now amplified and obscured at social media scale.

Jessica Tracy runs a lab (author of the book 'Pride') studying how emotions like pride, shame, and empathy evolved to manage social status.
Authentic pride comes from real accomplishment and feels good regardless of an audience.
Hubristic pride is self-promotion without a genuine accomplishment behind it.
Small ancestral communities made hubristic pride easy to detect; social media scale now hides it until it's publicly exposed.

“Authentic pride, you feel this good feeling after you've done something... hubristic pride is essentially promoting yourself as a way to boost your status, but…”
Michael Easter · 41:35

#psychology#status#pride#social-media

Explainer49:00

How Gamification Hijacks the Original Goal (Twitter, Wine Scores)

Easter explains how putting a number on a system changes people's behavior toward chasing that number rather than the system's original purpose — Goodhart's Law in action. He gives two examples: politicians' tweets becoming measurably more toxic as engagement metrics rewarded outrage, and how Robert Parker's wine scoring system reshaped what winemakers produced to chase high ratings.

A decade-long study of US politicians' tweets found toxicity scores rose over time because toxic tweets drove more engagement.
Twitter is theoretically for discussion, but chasing likes/retweets/followers rewards behavior at odds with genuine discussion.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate introduced a 50-100 point wine score that upended a 2,000-year-old winemaking tradition.
Winemakers began producing wines specifically tailored to Parker's palate because scored bottles sold far better.

“When a measure becomes an outcome it ceases to be a good measure.”
Chris Williamson · 56:40

“People are dicks on Twitter because what happens when you're a dick on Twitter is you get more followers and more likes.”
Michael Easter · 50:15

#gamification#social-media#goodharts-law#incentives

Story· 5

Story04:30

Inside Las Vegas's Secret Casino Behavior Laboratory

Michael Easter describes visiting a real casino on the edge of Las Vegas that the public isn't allowed into because it's actually a human-behavior laboratory built by the gambling industry and big tech companies. There he interviewed a slot machine engineer to understand why people play slot machines for hours despite knowing the house always wins.

The lab is a fully functioning casino used purely for behavioral research, not open to the public.
Built jointly by the gambling industry and big tech companies.
Slot machines are 'inherently irrational' since players know the house always wins, yet people play for hours.
Led Easter to a slot machine engineer who explained the mechanics behind the addictiveness.

“So the gambling industry as well as a bunch of big tech companies basically built a real casino but it is a human behavior laboratory.”
Michael Easter · 05:00

#gambling#casinos#behavioral-science#las-vegas

Story21:30

Captagon: The Amphetamine Now Flooding the Middle East

Easter traveled to Iraq to research addiction and tells the story of captagon, a once-obscure amphetamine-like drug originally developed in the 1960s to treat ADHD and depression before being banned. Bulgarian gangs began supplying it to the Middle East, and after Syria's government fell, production exploded there, with billions of pills now in circulation.

Captagon started in the 1960s as an ADHD/depression treatment before being banned for working 'too well.'
Bulgarian gangs first supplied Middle Eastern demand for the drug.
After Syria's government collapse, captagon production shifted into government-linked labs and now reportedly exceeds Syria's legal exports.
A recent bust intercepted roughly $1 billion worth of captagon pills at a Middle Eastern port.

“There was just a finding just like a week ago where they busted about a billion dollars worth of pills at a port coming into…”
Michael Easter · 23:20

#addiction#drugs#middle-east#geopolitics

Story35:30

P90X's 'Muscle Confusion' Shows How the Internet Changed Fact-Checking

Easter recalls the pre-internet fitness fad P90X and its vague marketing claim of 'muscle confusion,' which people simply accepted without scrutiny. He contrasts this with today, where anyone can instantly search and find both defenses and debunkings of a claim — but only if they know where to look for credible information in the first place.

P90X marketed 'muscle confusion' as its core benefit, and pre-internet audiences largely took it at face value.
Today the same claim would surface both supporting and debunking takes within seconds of a search.
Easter argues people can fact-check more easily now, but only if they know where good facts actually live.
This creates confusion rather than clarity when people don't know which sources to trust.

“People go, oh, muscle confusion, yeah, that makes sense... now everyone has an internet connection, you could get a thousand hits both for and against…”
Michael Easter · 36:15

#fitness#information#internet#media-literacy

Story57:00

Why Tribal People Eating Cheesecake for the First Time 'Blows Their Minds'

Easter describes videos of tribal people trying cheesecake for the first time, reacting with amazement because their diets almost never combine crunchy and fluffy or sweet and fatty textures the way ultra-processed Western foods do — a texture blend he says is a key driver of overeating.

Ancestral diets rarely combined multiple textures (e.g., crunchy + fluffy) the way processed foods like Oreos, fries, or cheesecake do.
Even yogurt with granola on top exploits this texture-blending appeal.
Raw, single-texture foods (like liver) are far less exciting and easier to self-moderate.
Texture variety is framed as one of the 'prime culprits' behind why processed food drives overeating.

“It absolutely blows their minds because it's this really interesting blend of sugar and fat... very rarely ancestrally would we have ever had something that…”
Michael Easter · 57:40

#food#nutrition#ultra-processed-food#psychology

Story61:00

The Bolivian Tribe With the Healthiest Hearts Ever Recorded

Easter recounts his multi-day journey deep into the Bolivian Amazon to stay with the Chimane, a tribe scientists have found to have the healthiest hearts ever recorded, with virtually no heart disease, Alzheimer's, or certain cancers. Their diet doesn't match any popular modern diet trend, but shares one trait: every food is single-ingredient and hard to overeat.

Reaching the Chimane required a 12-hour car ride plus a 6-hour boat trip into the Bolivian Amazon.
The Chimane show almost no markers of heart disease, Alzheimer's, or certain cancers — conditions that dominate mortality in developed nations.
Their remaining health problems are ones modern medicine already solved (pneumonia, infections, snake bites).
Their diet isn't paleo, vegan, low-carb, or low-fat — it's just single-ingredient foods (hunted meat, fish, rice, fruit, potatoes) that are naturally hard to overeat, unlike calorie-dense processed snacks.

“They have the healthiest hearts ever recorded by scientists.”
Michael Easter · 61:20

“If you have a boiled potato it's probably going to be like 150 calories... holy hell that is a task. I could probably crush a…”
Michael Easter · 63:35

#nutrition#heart-health#tribal-diet#longevity

Q&A· 2

Q&A30:00

Why We're Addicted to Certainty (Even Hypochondriacs)

Asked whether humans can become dependent on certainty, Easter says yes — citing a philosopher who argues ancestral humans evolved to trust the 'aha' feeling of resolving uncertainty (finding food, escaping danger). Today's questions are far more complex, but people still crave that same certainty feeling, often by cherry-picking whichever answer confirms what they already believe.

A University of Utah philosopher argues humans evolved to trust the 'aha' feeling of certainty because it once reliably signaled survival-relevant problems solved.
Modern questions (e.g. 'are carbs good or bad?') have many conflicting 'certain' answers available online, unlike ancestral problems.
Hypochondriacs, in this framing, would rather have a fatal-but-certain answer than tolerate an open, unresolved loop.
People today can easily find information that reinforces a pre-existing belief rather than genuine certainty.

“A hypochondriac would sooner have an assumption that's fatal than an open loop that allows them to survive.”
Chris Williamson · 31:20

#psychology#certainty#health-anxiety#information

Q&A52:30

The Hidden Metrics We Sacrifice for Observable Ones

Chris Williamson raises his own concept of 'hidden vs observable metrics' — that people trade invisible things like peace of mind or relationship quality for visible ones like salary — and Michael Easter builds on it with examples from his own students chasing GPA over the actual point of college, and people optimizing scale weight or fitness-tracker step counts over real health.

People often trade a hidden metric (sanity, relationship quality) for an observable one (salary, a bigger house).
Easter's university students fixate on GPA even though the real value of college is learning to show up, socialize, and handle responsibility.
Fitness/activity trackers get people hooked on arbitrary numbers (step counts, 'strain' scores) built on opaque, unverified algorithms.
Journaling or regular check-ins are suggested as ways to make hidden metrics visible again.

“People will often trade a hidden metric for an observable metric... a really good hidden metric would be something like peace of mind, and a…”
Chris Williamson · 52:35

“The point of going to a university is... you're there to meet people, learn to show up on time, but what tends to happen with…”
Michael Easter · 56:05

#metrics#self-improvement#psychology#habits

Tool· 2

Tool47:30

Book Recommendation: The Status Game by Will Storr

While discussing how status affects human behavior and health outcomes, Chris Williamson recommends Will Storr's book 'The Status Game' to Michael Easter as essential reading on the topic, noting Easter would likely love it.

Recommended in the context of research showing higher-status people have better long-term health outcomes even in countries with universal healthcare.
Chris Williamson personally vouches for the book as fascinating.
Easter had not yet read it at the time of the conversation.

“Did you read Will Storr's book, The Status Game? ... You would fall in love with it, it's absolutely fascinating.”
Chris Williamson · 47:35

#books#status#recommendation

Tool66:00

Tools Mentioned: The Clearspace App and Michael Easter's '2%' Newsletter

Easter recommends an app (Clearspace) that inserts a brief countdown delay before opening social apps, forcing intentionality and cutting his own screen time significantly. He also points listeners to his newsletter '2%' at tww-pct.com, which he says lets him explore ideas in more depth than his past magazine writing allowed.

Clearspace adds a short forced delay before opening apps like social media, which meaningfully reduced Easter's screen time.
Easter was initially skeptical of 'using an app to stop using an app' but found it effective once he tried it.
His newsletter '2%' (tww-pct.com) has had better reception than expected and lets him go deeper than magazine editing allowed.
His book, discussed throughout the episode, is called 'Scarcity Brain.'

“My damn screen time went way down because I had to get intentional with when I was going to use it and why.”
Michael Easter · 67:10

#tools#apps#newsletter#digital-wellbeing