About hormones
And so, you are standing in the middle of a rally, your heart and breath are trying to break out of the chest, your throat is dry, and an unusual ringing appears in your ears. And you don’t understand why all these people do not understand such simple rational arguments that fit so smoothly into your picture of the world. An inner voice shouts: - "And why does anyone have to explain such obvious things here !! ??!? Who do I work with!"
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In this article I would like to understand a little why emotions are an inseparable part of an IT specialist, and what to do with all this.
To do this, go down to a lower level.
When our brain encounters negative emotions, such as criticism, denial, etc. he perceives this as a threat to himself. Something needs to be done with the threat, and therefore a command is given to produce the stress hormone cortisol. In general, stress was invented by evolution rather for survival than for conducting intellectual conversations with an opponent. Therefore, the main two strategies that we focus on in a stressful situation are:
- hit (if the attack of the enemy appeared makes sense according to our inner feelings)
- Run (if the total weight of the tiger in the bushes looks more convincing than the muscle mass of the programmer).
Accordingly, under cortisol, rational thinking is inhibited, control is transferred to the hands of the emotional System-1, where the protection and preparation for conflict mode is activated, which is realized in the form of an appropriate emotional background. The situation is seen in a much darker light than it really is.
The man from the scene described above at the rally is somewhere at this point. There is a possibility that he now feels an emotional cocktail such as anger, loneliness, helplessness, etc. There is also the possibility that he is accustomed to think of himself as a rational and typically unemotional being, so he simply does not see what is really happening and what to do next, because the problem does not lie at all in the plane of the rational. Often, to get closer to reality and look at the situation with a foggy look, you need a break. To give everyone the opportunity to wait out stress and try to convey to each other the main points of the presentation later, when it all settles down.
Cortisol is a fairly long-acting hormone, and it should take some time before its action weakens. Positive iterations are quite another matter. Dopamine, serotonin, endorphin, oxytocin - a feel good hormones that are produced when we communicate on a positive background, increase the ability to communicate, interact and help other people. These hormones also contribute to event processing at the level of System-2, the rational part of the brain. In general, this is what is needed for productive work and normal human communication. Unfortunately, hormones of happiness, unlike cortisol, dissolve much faster, so their action is not so long and has not so significant effect. As a result, bad points pretty easily outweigh good ones. Therefore, in order to compensate for 1 negative approach,
Something like this, it works on a hormonal level. On the emotional side, we are simply either depressed, and we don’t want to talk to anyone, or are aggressive, and are ready to “fall apart”, if this is something positive, then this may be a reaction of joy, or even simple programmer tenderness, etc. .
Have you heard about robo-rats? These are laboratory rats whose electrodes have been implanted into the brain in order to teach them how to perform work that not all people are able to do effectively, such as searching for victims under rubble or neutralizing explosives. So, by supplying electrical signals to certain areas through electrodes to the brain, scientists essentially control rats. They can make them go left, or go right. Or even do things that rats don’t like at all in everyday life, like jumping from a great height. When certain centers are stimulated, the brain generates a corresponding hormonal and emotional background, and if you ask this rat why it went right or left, if you could, it would rationally explain why it wanted to go here or here. Do they force her to do what does she not like? Or does she like what her programmer does? How different is our brain, and will the same methods work on humans? So far, for ethical reasons, scientists do not seem to be conducting such experiments. But evolution on planet earth is the same for all. And freedom of choice, to admit, is still an elusive concept. Do you have an understanding of what and why you choose yourself for lunch today? Yes, you can make a choice of what exactly you eat, it will be pizza or french fries, probably you will make a choice in favor of what you want today. Do you have a choice of what you want to want? But evolution on planet earth is the same for all. And freedom of choice, to admit, is still an elusive concept. Do you have an understanding of what and why you choose yourself for lunch today? Yes, you can make a choice of what exactly you eat, it will be pizza or french fries, probably you will make a choice in favor of what you want today. Do you have a choice of what you want to want? But evolution on planet earth is the same for all. And freedom of choice, to admit, is still an elusive concept. Do you have an understanding of what and why you choose yourself for lunch today? Yes, you can make a choice of what exactly you eat, it will be pizza or french fries, probably you will make a choice in favor of what you want today. Do you have a choice of what you want to want?
Unfortunately, the Soviet past did not leave the most favorable imprint on the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space in terms of understanding the internal processes taking place in the head of the layman. This is the one who today is someone's grandmother - grandfather, dad - mom, etc. And the curve settings and patterns are quite naturally transmitted from generation to generation from parents to children. Therefore, it is not surprising that among those born in the USSR (to the present), a closed type of thinking prevails, where emotions are assigned one of the last places in the list of human needs, and it seems that it is easier to deny them than to admit and live in harmony with evolutionary principles . Once I had to stir and start to notice the environment a little on the other side. And when you begin to realize the human world more fully, new opportunities and paths open up, which used to be just invisible. If earlier it was possible to run into a wall and be perplexed about questions like: why are my comrades at work promoted, and I always stay away? Why can't I finish what I started? Why are relations with bosses not developing? Why is my voice not significant? etc. etc. The answers very often go beyond the rational System-2 and without understanding and understanding the whole picture and the presence of emotional System-1, they simply cannot be seen. Why are my comrades at work promoted while I constantly stay away? Why can't I finish what I started? Why are relations with bosses not developing? Why is my voice not significant? etc. etc. The answers very often go beyond the rational System-2 and without understanding and understanding the whole picture and the presence of emotional System-1, they simply cannot be seen. Why are my comrades at work promoted while I constantly stay away? Why can't I finish what I started? Why are relations with bosses not developing? Why is my voice not significant? etc. etc. The answers very often go beyond the rational System-2 and without understanding and understanding the whole picture and the presence of emotional System-1, they simply cannot be seen.
The language "Emotion" is that ancient programming language of the past, present and future in which we are all, and most living organisms on our planet are written. Understanding the principles of his work greatly facilitates the perception of life and existence in the social environment of human beings.
Thanks, bye for now.
Read more about System-1, System-2 in my last post .