
Sex, drugs, dopamine and exceeding expectations - zeedotme
http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2010/12/22/sex-drugs-dopamine-and-exceeding-expectations/?utm_campaign=The+Next+Web
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sorbus
"It isn’t just a feeling but your brain releasing dopamine"

Is there actually any difference between the two? Emotions are extremely
chemical things, after all.

~~~
econner
Most theories today posit that dopamine encodes the positive predictive error
between a true reward and an expected reward. So if the reward is much more
than you expect lots of dopamine will be released, but if it is exactly what
you expected then none will be released. Dopamine enhances the experience of
the reward by lowering the rate of firing required in the reward area to
experience the same reward in the absence of dopamine. Thus, lesser rewards
feel better when there is differential expectation. So dopamine enhances the
feeling that's already there.

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spinlock
The author used the word, "sticked" to describe customers sticking with a car
salesman. What chemical gets released in your brain when you're underwhelmed
by the copy writing?

~~~
pekinb
When I read that sentence, I felt like I did the last time I ran out of sex.

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raintrees
I think I practice this - I call it managing expectations. Microsoft does it
with their call support, as well, albeit rather more in your face (an email
sent shortly after first contract describing what they are going to set my
expectations to - And we did not discuss it):

"As discussed, I am providing you a copy of our scope agreement for your
issue.

Issue Definition: Users unable to login to xp workstations intermittently

Scope Agreement: Once we make sure that users are able to login to XP
workstations the issue would be considered resolved"

But I find assisting clients with expectations, positive or negative, has
great benefits for long term relationships. They learn that I am not just
feeding them a line.

I tend to under-promise, and I warn clients when they get too exuberant after
small initial success in a larger problem. I consider it Murphy, rather than
cynicism/pessimism.

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mannicken
To be fair, not all drugs release dopamine but those that are addictive do. In
a sense, the salesmen had his customers addicted to an experience of buying
from him. In another sense, Apple has the customers addicted to experience of
buying and using their technology.

