Notes From the Feed: Moderation, Dopamine, and the Work in Progress
I write a lot of this thinking out loud on social first. This page is where I’m collecting the pieces that actually belong to the catalog — the honest, first-person notes, in my own words, pulled from what I’ve already posted publicly. I’ll keep adding to it.
On dopamine and moderation
Posted July 1, 2026:
Four years ago, my life was so different. I got dopamine from all the wrong things at all the wrong times of the day. Nowadays, I don’t pretend the demons don’t exist, but I also don’t give them power over me. Moderation is key.
A wise friend told me a key that opens all locks is valuable, but a lock that is opened by all keys is completely worthless. Pretty sure he was talking about something else, but the principle stands.
The only remaining final boss demon is anxiety, and I’m working on that a little bit every day.
That’s the thread that runs through most of what I read here — the dopamine and executive-function science around ADHD, why sugar and alcohol show up in mood and focus, and why I bother tracking the runs at all. I’m not writing from the finish line. I’m writing from the middle of it.
On the running, and why
Posted May 22, 2026, on a lunch run:
New goal unlocked: under 8 min/mile.
The longer-term reason I keep the habit is in the running lane — the honest version, where regular activity is associated with lower risk at the population level, and I track guideline coverage rather than pretend I can measure what any single run does for one body.
Why collect these here
Social feeds bury things. This site doesn’t. If a note is worth writing, it’s worth keeping somewhere I own, next to the research that made me think it — so the reflections and the evidence live in the same place. More as they come.