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Any last questions for Charles Lyell before I permanently log off of Quora?

I’ve just been informed that in order to remain on Quora I would have to switch to my real name, which I’m not in a position to do.

As with most of life’s “clouds” this one has a silver lining.

Quora has proven invaluable over the past few months and it’s probably time to collect my marbles (that some people probably think I’ve lost) and get back to the futility of trying to raise dopamine awareness in the “real world.”

A special thanks to all the incredibly interesting, intelligent, insightful, wonderful, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and especially funny Quorans for adding so much to my life. (I’ll refrain from naming names because I don’t want to risk leaving anyone out. But I suspect you all know who you are.)

If anyone’s interested in keeping in touch, feel free to say hello at

[email protected].

Thanks soooo much for everything. Your kindness, generosity, and receptiveness were and are sincerely appreciated.
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tynamite
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  • Does the prominence of dopamine motivated answers you write about why people do things, signify that you agree with Game Theory?
  • Do you believe in free will?
  • Do you have kids? And if so, how do you teach them right and wrong, and make them into better people?
  • Apart from Quora, what websites do you use to learn things or read interesting things?
  • Do you think Quora is dead?
  • Do you think you'll make Quora a better place with your answers?
  • What effect do you think that your answers here will have on people, after you've gone?
  • Do you have experience with crazy people on the internet?
  • Do you think that using your real name on Quora will give you crazy people and stalkers?
  • Are you cyber-skeptical of Facebook?
  • I've read your How did Charles Lyell come to be an advocate for dopamine awareness? answer where you explain the history of your research, and how it was dismissed by experts. And I've wondered how you think people will react now to your findings, off Quora, still. How do you think people now off Quora, will react to your research and findings, regarding dopamine induced behaviour and effects?


Some of the answers you write I feel like downvoting because they fixate onto dopamine too much as if that's the reason for everything everyone does everything.

The problem with this, is that it makes people look like psychopathic machines without free will, who only care about maximising their interest with minimal risk.
That there's no other reason why people do things, other than that.

Some of your answers don't take into account that people are individuals with unique hopes and dreams, values and motivations.

I will now give you an example of such an answer.
I will improve your answer by replacing the word dopamine with happy.
You're going to love this!

How can a person learn to take things less seriously?

People can learn to take things less seriously by starting with learning how to take themselves less seriously.

On a practical level, it’s often helpful to remind ourselves that it doesn’t make sense to waste valuable time getting overly upset over events that will seem insignificant in a few days, weeks, months, or years. And it doesn’t hurt to develop an inner voice to remind ourselves to “get over it already” when we find ourselves obsessing over trivialities.

On a happiness level, the need to feel important (by taking ourselves overly seriously) is a happiness-induced survival need that our species shares with chimpanzees. For chimpanzees, the need to feel important fosters survival. For Homo sapiens, (as Dr. Einstein noted) the need can turn into a prison. And it’s a prison few people want to escape from or want others to escape from.

Why? Because we’re all born into a happiness matrix / prison where the only thing that matters is scoring happiness. The need to score happiness is so great that few people are capable of considering how happiness usurps free will because just thinking about dopamine threatens the happiness flow.

Taking ourselves overly seriously is an easy way to elevate our sense of importance = easy way to trigger happiness. Which is why so many people are convinced that their paper cuts are more traumatic, and should be taken more seriously, than the plights of children who are starving to death.
So now................. I can take that answer, print it out, give it to a counsellor who has studies psychology for years, and they will say that it's not only because of primitive dopamine drugs like on the lowest level of Maslow's Hierachy of Needs as if we were looking at monkeys in a zoo mucking about. But also because children need to have regard and self-esteem for their personal-development as one of their key stages, as famous psychologist Carl Rogers says.

And we can extend the word happiness to mean other things that relate to one's morale, and dopamine cannot really increase one's morale, but self-esteem, regard and other things can.

Don't get me started on How could we fix the root problem(s) in US politics? The word happiness would improve that answer so much more lmao.

This is why I asked if you are a conspiracy theorist lol. I know you're not.

I just think that your answers undermine the integrity of free will, that's all.
And not everyone is going to want to accept that, even if you're right.

Goodbye anyway. It's a shame that you're going. Good look with your Dopamine Project. I'll email you to see what it does.
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What's an assertion, and what should I type in?

Compesh is a question and answer (and debate) website, so before you make a debate, you better learn what an assertion is. I suppose you already know what a question is, and that you've typed it in the box. ;)

An assertion, is basically a statement you can make, that is either true or false.

Richer people have better health.

The question for that would be, Do richer people have better health?

And don't forget to make your assertion, match your question.

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