DOMINATIONBA: I understood the construction of it. It’s got landing gear.
It’s got struts that compress. It’s got probes that hang down. It
was a marvel of engineering.
—Interview with Buzz AldrinInstead of taking a bow for walking on the moon, Colonel Buzz Aldrin,
PhD, told his admirers, “It’s something we did. Now we should do
something else,” apparently no more satisfied than if he had painted
a fence. His desire was not to bask in his glory but to find “something
else”—the next big challenge that could hold his interest. This perpet-
ual need to identify a goal and calculate a way to reach it was perhaps
the most important factor in his historic success. But it’s not easy hav-
ing so much dopamine coursing through the control circuits. It almost
certainly played a significant role in Aldrin’s post-lunar struggle with
depression, alcoholism, three divorces, suicidal impulses, and a stay on
a psychiatric ward, which he described in his candid autobiography,
Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon.
Just as desire dopamine facilitates becoming addicted to
drugs—chasing the high and receiving less and less dopamine “buzz”
from it—some people have so much control dopamine that they become
addicted to achievement, but are unable to experience H&N fulfillment.
Think of people you know who work relentlessly toward their goals but
never stop to enjoy the fruits of their achievements. They don’t even
brag about them. They achieve something, then move on to the next
thing. One woman described taking a leadership position in a division
of a company that was in chaos. Years of long hours and hard struggle
allowed her to get everything running smoothly, and she immediately
became bored. For a few months she tried to enjoy the new, relaxed
environment she had created, but she couldn’t bear it, and requested a
transfer to a department that was a complete mess.
These individuals exhibit the effects of an imbalance between
future-focused dopamine and present-focused H&N neurotransmitters.
They flee the emotional and sensory experiences of the present. For
them, life is about the future, about improvement, about innovation.