The Molecule of More

CREATIVITY AND MADNESS

These three personality types appear to  be  very different on  the 
surface, but they all have something in common. They’re overly focused
on  maximizing future resources at  the  expense of appreciating the  here 
and now. The pleasure seeker always wants more. No matter how much
he gets, it’s never enough. No matter how much he looks forward to
some promised pleasure, he  is  incapable of finding satisfaction in  it.  As 
soon as it comes he turns his attention to what’s next. The detached
planner also has a future/present imbalance. Like the pleasure seeker
he also has a constant need for more, but he takes a long-term view,
chasing more abstract forms of gratification such as  honor, wealth, and 
power. The genius lives in the world of the unknown, the not yet discov-
ered, obsessed with making the future a better place through her work.
Geniuses change the world—but their obsession often presents itself as
indifference toward others.

BENEVOLENT MISANTHROPES

Highly intelligent, highly successful, and highly creative

people—typically, highly dopaminergic people—often express

a strange sentiment: they are passionate about people but

have little patience for them as individuals:

The more I love humanity in general the less I love man in

particular. In my dreams, I often make plans for the service

of humanity... Yet I am incapable of living in the same room

with anyone for two days together... I become hostile to

people the moment they come close to me.

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I am a misanthrope and yet utterly benevolent, have more

than one screw loose yet am a super-idealist who digests

philosophy more efficiently than food.

—Alfred Nobel