The Molecule of More

locus of control. This phrase refers to the tendency to view one’s choices 
and experiences as being under one’s own control as opposed to being 
determined by fate, luck, or other people. It’s a good feeling. Most peo-
ple don’t like being at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Pilots 
say that when they’re flying in bad weather, it’s less stressful to be at the 
controls than to sit in the cabin. It’s the same with driving in a snow-
storm. Most people would rather be in the driver’s seat than in the pas-
senger seat. In addition to making people feel good, an internal locus 
of control also makes people more effective. People with a strong sense 
of internal locus of control are more likely to achieve academic success 
and get high-paying jobs.
Those who have an external locus of control, by contrast, take a more 
passive view of life. Some are happy, relaxed, and easygoing, but at the 
same time they often blame others for their failures and may not put 
forth their best effort on a consistent basis. Doctors often become frus-
trated with this kind of person. They tend to ignore medical advice, and 

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they aren’t easily persuaded to accept responsibility for their health by 
taking their medication every day and making healthy lifestyle choices. 
The development of an internal locus of control, as well as con-
tentment (if only for a little while), are among the many benefits of
achieving mastery over an activity. But it takes an enormous amount of
time and effort as well as constant mental stretching. Mastering a skill 
requires a student to constantly move outside her comfort zone. As soon 
as a piano player gets good at an easy song, she has to start on a harder 
one. It’s a tough slog, but it can also be a great joy. Those who don’t give 
up generally feel it was worth it. It can result in a feeling that they have 
found their passion, something so engrossing they become completely 
immersed in it.
THE REWARDS OF REALITY
What do you think about when you brush your teeth? Probably not 
brushing your teeth. You’re more likely to be thinking about things you 
have to do later in the day, later in the week, or some other time in 
the future. Why? Maybe it’s a habit. Maybe it’s anxiety. Maybe you’re 
afraid that if you don’t think about the future you will miss something. 
But you probably won’t. And by not thinking about what you’re doing, 
you will definitely miss something, maybe even something you never 
noticed before, something unexpected.
What dopamine loves more than anything else is reward prediction 
error, which, as we have discussed, is the discovery that something is 
better than we had anticipated it would be. Paradoxically, dopamine 
does everything in its power to avoid such incorrect forecasts. Reward 
prediction error feels great because your dopamine circuits get excited 
over the fact that there is something new and unexpected to make your 
life better. But being surprised by an unexpected new resource means 
the resource isn’t being fully exploited. So dopamine makes sure the 
surprise that felt so good will never be a surprise again. Dopamine 
extinguishes its own pleasure. It’s frustrating, but it’s the best way to 
keep us alive. What can we do to keep the surprises coming?

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THE MOLECULE OF MORE
Reality is the richest source of the unexpected. Fantasies that we con-
jure in our minds are predictable. We go over the same material again 
and again. Once in a while we’ll be struck by an original idea, but it’s 
rare, and it usually happens when we’re paying attention to something 
else—not when we’re trying to strong-arm our creativity into action.
Paying attention to reality, to what you are actually doing in the 
moment, maximizes the flow of information into your brain. It maxi-
mizes dopamine’s ability to make new plans, because to build models 
that will accurately predict the future, dopamine needs data, and data 
flows from the senses. That’s dopamine and H&N working together.
When something interesting activates the dopamine system, we 
snap to attention. If we are able to activate our H&N system by shifting 
our focus outward, the increased level of attention makes the sensory 
experience more intense. Imagine walking down a street in a foreign 
country. Everything is more exciting, even looking at ordinary buildings, 
trees, and shops. Because we are in a novel situation, sensory inputs are 
more vivid. That’s a large part of the joy of travel. It works in the oppo-
site direction, too. Experiencing H&N sensory stimulation, especially 
within a complex environment (sometimes called an enriched environment), 
makes the dopaminergic cognitive facilities in our brains work better. 
The most complex environments, those that are most enriched, are 
usually natural ones.
GO AHEAD AND TAKE A MICROBREAK . . .
Nature is complex. It’s made up of systems with many interacting parts. 
Unexpected patterns emerge as a result of a large number of elements 
influencing one another. There’s a virtually limitless amount of detail 
to explore. We also perceive it as beautiful, inspiring, sometimes calm-
ing, and other times energizing. Dr. Kate Lee and a team of researchers 
at the University of Melbourne, Australia, tested the cognitive effects 
of a mere 40 seconds of exposure to nature in the form of a picture of
a city building with grass and flowers covering the roof. They compared 
it to the effects of a picture of a similar building covered with concrete.

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To measure the impact of these different scenes, the researchers 
asked a group of students to perform a concentration task. Random 
numbers were flashed on a screen, and the students had to press a but-
ton as soon as they saw the number. But they had to hold back when the 
number was 3. They had less than a second to react, and they had to do 
it 225 times in a row. It’s a hard task that requires a great deal of con-
centration and motivation to get it right. The researchers asked the stu-
dents to do the task twice, with a 40-second “microbreak” in between.
Students who looked at the picture of flowers and grass between 
the first and second trials made fewer errors than those who looked at 
the concrete roof. The researchers speculated that the most likely expla-
nation for the difference was that the natural scene stimulated both 
“sub-cortical arousal” (desire dopamine) and “cortical attention con-
trol” (control dopamine). A reporter from the Washington Post who com-
mented on the study noted that “urban rooftops covered with grasses, 
plants and other types of greenery are becoming increasingly popular 
around the world . . . [Facebook] recently installed a massive 9-acre 
green roof at its office in Menlo Park, California.” That approach to 
architecture, using H&N stimulation to activate dopamine, is not only 
good for the soul—it may also be good for the bottom line.
. . . BUT DON’T TRY TO MULTITASK