Ricky B.

75% of people can’t go 2 weeks without smartphone internet. Even when they volunteer for it. 467 people signed up to block mobile internet for 14 days. Motivated participants who actively wanted to change. Three out of four couldn’t do it. The researchers used a locked app called Freedom that made it physically impossible to re-enable the internet. Most people still found workarounds. Here’s what’s happening at the neurological level. Every phone check triggers a small dopamine release. 186 checks per day means 186 micro-doses of dopamine, one every 5 minutes, training your brain to expect stimulation at a frequency that makes sustained attention on any single task almost impossible. Your prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for deep focus and executive function, is getting interrupted before it can enter the state where real cognitive work happens. The 25% who made it through the full 2 weeks? Their sustained attention improved by the equivalent of reversing a decade of age-related cognitive decline. That’s a measurable, objective improvement on a validated attention task, not self-reported “I feel more focused.” 91% of all participants, including the ones who failed the full detox, still saw gains in mental health, well-being, or attentional capacity. Average screen time dropped from 5 hours to 2.5. They replaced that time with face-to-face interaction, movement, outdoor exposure, and 18 extra minutes of sleep per night. The reduction in depressive symptoms was larger than what multiple antidepressant studies have shown. The protocol insight here matters more than the willpower narrative. You cannot discipline yourself out of a product built by thousands of engineers optimizing for one variable: time on screen. The 25% who succeeded had a system that removed the choice. They didn’t resist the urge. They eliminated the option. Environment design drives the outcome. Partial detoxes produced nearly the same cognitive benefits as full ones, and participants were 4x more likely to sustain them. Charge the phone in a different room at night. Use app-level timers. Delete the 2-3 apps driving compulsive checks. Add friction between the impulse and the behavior. You need a higher activation energy between you and the screen.

The antidote for brain rot is going back to longer formats: reading books, essays. Reading will help you rebuild your focus and attention span.

You don’t realize how weak our economy is right now. If you have a job, hold onto it with your life. Because if you get laid off, it’s going to take you months to find another one.

Your brain doesn't age because of time. It ages because of repetition. The more predictable your days become, the faster your neurons quiet down. Your brain builds neural pathways based on experience. New experiences create new connections. Repetition strengthens old ones. But when you repeat the same patterns for years, your brain stops building. That's why time feels faster as you age. Your brain stops encoding new memories. It just references old ones. A year at 40 feels shorter than a year at 10, because at 10, everything was new. At 40, everything is familiar. But neuroplasticity doesn't stop. You can still grow new neurons. You can still learn. You can still change. You just have to break the loop. Your brain will wake up. And time will slow down again.

Y’all got it man, y’all got it.

Smile thru it all…

Today, let us remember Martin Luther King as he was: A Black radical anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, revolutionary Christian who was murdered as an enemy of the State. Anything else is just a lie.

“I watch my father walk back in my life and it clears up a hurt” This is THE most clever way I’ve ever heard a rapper express the pain of their father walking out on them. Sheeeeshhh — J. Cole’s ability to write is insane dawg 😮‍💨🔥

A $100,000 salary in 1990 would be more than $250,000 in today's dollars. A $100,000 salary today would be less than $40,000 in 1990.

35% of entry-level jobs require 3+ years of experience, per Forbes.

yeah, this tracks. a lot of our thoughts are uncontrollable nonsense. we receive thoughts that we don’t even want to think almost as if these thoughts are automated/programmed due to subconscious fears based on past experiences & beliefs. recognize that, deny them, rise above ♡

LMFAO this is going well so far

I'm 100% serious when I say companies who do this should: A) Be banned from job hiring sites B) Get fined for doing it

All of these AI posts and you wonder why it’s 70 degrees on Christmas Day in places where it’s usually 45.

Electricity is up 6%, Insurance is up 8%, Beef is up 15%, Coffee is up 26%, Bread is up 28%, Milk is up 36% this year.

The mainstream media had no problem reporting how bad Biden’s economy was despite it recovering faster than any other country. The economy is even worse now yet they are, for some reason, almost completely uninterested in reporting how bad it is.

It doesn’t matter how much this meal cost… Whatever it was it was worth it and I’m going to tell you why. @FiveGuys is the only franchise system that has three generations of family ownership that have committed to NEVER selling to private equity. They buy from family owned businesses, they make food fresh, and they stay family owned small businesses. So whatever they’re charging - it’s worth it.

The goal post gets moved way too often in CO

Wale gave language to a type of struggle we see every day but rarely name. This album is what modern masculinity actually sounds like. If you’re paying attention, it’s required listening. Happy International Men’s Day to the good men still trying to survive themselves THANK U @Wale open.substack.com/pub/mimithemus…