Dopamine Capitalism
The Scheme, Vol 1. Ed 7: Pick Your Poison
The first person I learned about money from was my dad. He was a CFO and naturally inclined toward numbers. He was also our family accountant and kept a strict ledger of our spending. He is the first person I had to ask for money. It started on Friday nights. By the time I was in high school, I needed $20 for gas, a cup of coffee at Denny’s, a pack of cigarettes, maybe to chip in on a baggie of weed, and gummy bears to wash it all down. The money sat in his money clip, on top of the refrigerator. I’d casually say as I was headed out the door, “I’m taking $20,” and then try to get to the garage before he objected.
Money was tied to approval and performance my entire life. Dad was always the gatekeeper. The irony is that for a chunk of my childhood, my father was unemployed due to his love of Gordon’s vodka and Old Style. It was my mom who carried our family when my dad couldn’t. But the mindset in our house never changed.
Today, March 9th, marks the anniversary of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations; 250 years, just like America. It’s no secret that what we’re experiencing right now isn’t quite how Smith had envisioned capitalism. I like to imagine that if Smith were able to hop into a time machine, he’d be horrified in 2026, as we all are.
Smith was a moral philosopher who asked us to think about how to take care of the lives of ordinary people. Recently, I have been thinking about how much of our consumer economy is built on dopamine: social media, gambling, crypto, porn, news feeds, and processed food. I am not sure how those are taking care of the lives of ordinary people.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be an entrepreneur in 2026 when so many processes are tied to dopamine: digital ads, stats, feeds, lists, followers, mentions, hits. The dopamine trap is all around us. It keeps us distracted and, most importantly, it profoundly disconnects us from our purpose.
The problem with purpose is that it doesn’t offer dopamine spikes. Purpose comes with moments of questioning. It comes with the dullness of doing your taxes. It forces you to create in the unknown; to self-validate without a requisite “like”. It is the antithesis of dopamine capitalism. Purpose calls you to embrace the ordinary. Just like Adam Smith.
Part of what I needed that $20 every Friday night in high school was my own dopamine dreams. Back then, I had to chase it. I had to contort myself for approval and perform for my share. It is weird to think that as an adult, I’d choose to do the same.
Purpose will never make you chase it. But it will refill you, like the bottomless coffee at Denny’s.
These illustrations 😂!
But I have been thinking a lot lately about sustained growth and how easy it is to be impatient or to forget how proud we’d be of the work we’re doing now if we were looking back from a few years ago.
☕️☕️☕️