DRUGSon nothing but a gut feeling that it was the right one. Only once in a
while do we sit down to consider our options rationally, weighing one
against the other. Such an exercise is tiring work, and the outcome is
rarely satisfying. We seldom reach the point at which we can say with
certainty that we made the right decision. It’s much easier just to do
what we want, so that’s what we do.
The next question, of course, becomes, “Well, then, what do we
want?” The answer depends on whom you ask: one person might
want to be rich, another might want to be a good father. The answer
depends on when you ask, too. The 7:00 pm answer might be “dinner”;
the 7:00 am answer might be “another 10 minutes of sleep.” Sometimes
people don’t know what they want at all; other times they want lots of
things at once—things that they cannot have at the same time, because
they conflict with one another. Most people, when they see a donut,
want to eat it. Most people, when they see a donut, want to not eat it.
What’s going on?
HOW TO STAY ALIVEAndrew was a young man in his twenties who worked for a company that
sold enterprise software. He had a confident, outgoing personality, and was
one of the top salespeople in the company. He was so consumed with his
work that he spent almost no time relaxing or pursuing other activities,
except one: picking up women. He estimated that he had slept with over a
hundred women but had never experienced an intimate relationship with any
of them. It was something he longed for, something he knew was important
for his long-term happiness, and he recognized that continuing his pattern
of one-night stands wasn’t going to get him there. Nevertheless, the pattern
continued.Wanting, or desire, flows from an evolutionarily old part of the brain
deep inside the skull called the ventral tegmental area. It is rich in dopa-
mine; in fact, it is one of the two main dopamine-producing regions.
Like most brain cells, the cells that grow there have long tails that wind