The Workedge Blog
Mark's Remarks
The Boy in the Yearbook
In a dusty yearbook from 1962, a quiet moment between a student and his band director changed music history. This is the story of Don — and a reminder that your everyday actions can shape extraordinary futures.
How to Become a Person with Charisma
Discover how to develop charisma using nonverbal cues like body language, voice tone, and facial expressions. Learn key insights from Vanessa Van Edwards’ book Cues to boost your confidence and communication skills.
Remember the Eskimo!
In a world overflowing with pleasure, we are starving for balance. Drawing from Anna Lembke’s Dopamine Nation, this post explores how our brains—wired for survival in scarcity—are now overwhelmed by abundance. Through a chilling Eskimo parable and modern data on addiction, we uncover how unchecked desire can lead us to feed on ourselves, both metaphorically and literally. This is a call to remember the value of pain, the limits of pleasure, and the urgent need to restore equilibrium in our lives.
How Not to Get Your Fix
Here’s something you may not know: Prohibition actually worked. While it’s often remembered for speakeasies and gangsters, the ban on alcohol in early 20th-century America led to a dramatic drop in alcohol consumption and addiction. As Stanford professor Anna Lembke notes, rates of public drunkenness and liver disease were cut in half. Today, as we grapple with new forms of addiction, Lembke’s concept of “self-binding”—intentionally limiting our access to tempting behaviors—offers a powerful tool for regaining self-control, whether it’s with alcohol, technology, or other habits.
Addicted to Something?
Do you ever wonder if your daily habits might be more addictive than you think? Whether you’re struggling with obvious addictions or simply curious about your own behavior, understanding how dopamine shapes our pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain is crucial. In this post, we’ll explore what addiction really means, why it can happen to anyone, and how finding balance is key to a healthy, fulfilling life.
Driven by Dopamine
Dopamine is nature’s way of affirming that the action you take is helping sustain you and keep you alive….But dopamine can also work against you. While it can reinforce good behavior, it can also encourage bad behavior. Dopamine can become addictive.