Novelty Junkies

in the novelty and they're out there and doing it right. Yeah, they're getting done. Like the vision of novelty junkie, it comes to me is actually, Um, there's a Portlandia sketch the other day about where the the wife is going to some sort of meeting in the evening and so she has to get a babysitter for the husband so that he doesn't sit around and watch random YouTube videos all night, drink beer and then fall asleep in his

clothes with all the lights in the house on. Because that's I mean the like things like YouTube, things like Wikipedia, they allow one to really flex the novelty seeking muscle in the brain to where it's like, you know, random duck driving a car watching it, vomiting, competition waking. I don't know, we just did a competitive eating related podcasts

like a vomiting on the brain. But you know it's like one of both of these are examples if you can just go from one subject in another, from one diverse, tid dead or random weirdness to another without ever really absorbing much of anything, sort of like an A D D state, Right, Yeah, But I guess that is the downside of it, right, because then a culture that we have right now, you know, um, we apparently consume about one hundred thousand words each day from various media, which,

according to Winnifred Gallagher and No Journalists says, that is a walpping three increase measured invites over what we handled back in nineteen Yeah, because I mean thinking back, like even thinking back then when I was, when I was a kid, Like if you wanted to learn new stuff, like you're just sort of picking up new information or fulfilling that novelty portion of your brain, Like you had to go to library and you look around, you had to look through your dad's, your your mom's books, and

you know old books and or encyclopedia. Like the encyclopedia itself was always a great novelty seeking tool, but the Internet really opens it up. You're just to keep a few key strokes away from just an abyss of sometimes useless, often useless information. Yeah, And I mean that's the thing about neophilia or or seeking novelty really is that it spurs us to try to explore and find new things, which is really cool, but it can also feed into

ours restlessness or distraction. And by the way, did you know that the word boring didn't even enter the dictionary I think into like the nineteen hundreds, like it. That's kind of fascinating, you mean, so it's like a twentieth century luxury being able to board with anything right, right, because you know, otherwise there's there's work to do, there's stuff to do, like what are you doing? How can

you possibly be bored? Right? But when you start automating things, all of a sudden, you've got extra time on your hands, right, or once you know you which from being an a grarian society to an industrialized society, than you know, you're not in the fields for twelve hours a day, um, And then of course, I think that we're seeing the extreme example of this right now in our day and age. Um, and that's what we're talking about today is just kind of getting behind this idea of what is the science

behind novelty? Why do we seek out new experiences? How many of us are neophobes, neophiles, neophiliacs, You're crazy maniac novelty runner aftersh And that's what we're going to talk about and try to explore. So, yeah, let me get

back to this Winnifred Gallagher character. Besides me or journalist, she also has written a couple of books, and she argues that neophilia, this this desire for new experiences has always been the quintessential human survival skill, whether adapting to climate change or um, you know, some sort of new geographical area, or coping with the latest digital toy. Yeah, it's like you're marching over a hill. Suddenly there's a slightly different environment going on. You're like to do this.

Let's see what's edible, Let's see what's poisonous. Let's see what animals I can domesticate, Which ones I I need to kill with a rock, Let's do it. I'm all up for new experiences when other people might peek over that hill and they're like, I don't know about this new environment. I'm just gonna creep back here and need

more of those grasshoppers. Right, you might be a neopho, and you might have a different genetic disposition to explore new things and infect In the article What's New Exuberance for novelty has Benefits by John Tierney on The New York Times, they actually talked about this migration gene. Yeah, so this is the migration gene. This is a DNA

mutation that occurred roughly fifty thousand years ago. It's believed as the humans we're leaving Africa, and these mutations are actually the most prevalent in the in the most far flung population so done, like Indian tribes in South America that are descended from neophiliacs across the Bearing Straits. Understandably, you see the strongest occurrence of these genes and the

people who traveled the farthest right, right. And the coolest thing about this is that the genetic variations affect the brains regulation of dopamine. And I feel like we've been talking about Yeah, Yeah, The New York Transmitter that gives us that kind of high that you know that the

ding ding reward. Right. So the variations, these variations have been linked to more um, well it should say, faster reaction times and individuals that possess them attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, right, which we've seen a lot, or it seems like that's been in the news a lot in the last decade or so, and a higher penchant for novelty seeking and

risk taking. So it's like fascinating that so much of this ties back to our DNA or our migratory patterns that you know, you could come into this world and be a bit hardwired for these experiences, maybe your neophobe and you know you're not comfortable with new experiences and

you want to, you know, retract a little bit. You can imagine individuals in that situation being more inclined to stick around in their existing area and sort of fine tune their exploitation of that environment, sort of like, well, let's I'm I'm really not into going over that hill and checking out what's going over there. I'm going to figure out how to farm better here, or how to better manage the animals I need to catch to survive that kind of thing exactly. UM. And you know, maybe

these are the agrarians um of of history. Uh. And of course it's not as simple as it just sort of dills down to you having a you know, varying to in this gene. There are other factors that play

environmental um. In fact, they were talking about in this article uh from the New York Times about novelty perhaps even um being the key to happiness, and a lot of that again has to do with what sort of environmental factors are present, not just what genes you possess, right, only know, that's one of the whole reasons for like most people are a lot of people. I mean, there's

sort of different versions of people going on vacation. Some people like to go back to a familiar spot that they have this investment and that's a place they go every year and it's full of memories. Other people they like something new, They want to they want to be blown away by a new environment. Uh, new sides, new sounds. I feel like my wife and I are definitely more

in that category. Worry. UM. I mean there are places we have memories attached to as well, but there's nothing like going to like a new city, a new place and exploring it, and I mean it really your perception of time changes in those environments, like because everything is novel, everything is new. It's like your kid again because when your kid, everything is everything is novel, and uh, you know, in time slows down and everything's bright, Well you think

differently about your role. I mean to me, travel and and having new experiences forever changes you as a person, right, yeah, right, And that's what I love about. In fact, I took the uh, the little quiz that New York Times article has again, it's called what's new Exuberance for novelty has benefits? And it turns out that I am a neophiliac. Huh. You know. I started taking the same quiz, but then someone something this YouTube video this go for right the

three wheeler, and it was amazing. All right, well let's

talk about that. Let's talk about this this idea that neophiliacs or people who are neophiles, you know a little bit to a lesser degree but still seeking out new experiences, are their brains are bifurcated with all this different data and harness it in a way that you can actually make something of this yeah, it's estimated that you you really need a trio of traits to really to to to be the guy in the squirrel suit of skydiving, as opposed to the guy who's falling asleep watching a

bunch of different YouTube videos. The individuals in this perdious study, they scored high in noveli seeking as well as in persistence and trelp and self transcendence. So persistence, of course is the is sticking to it. Some some people are may be disinclined to take up new hobbies because you try it and you suck at it. Like that's pretty much how a lot of things go. It's rare that we find some new skill or some new you know, artistic endeavor that we the first time we try it,

we got it. I mean a it's not very rewarding if there's no room for growth, right. Part of the reward is seeing your improvement. But you gotta have some persistence to stick with it. You gotta be willing to suck at something for a certain amount of time before you are good at it and before it's maybe ultimately more rewarding. Persistent like in our there are two opening examples. The guy with the squirrel suit. That dude had a vision, but he had to have a certain amount of persistence

to see it through. Like he couldn't just play like what am I doing this weekend? I'm making a squirrel suit and I'm gonna jump off of a mountain and I'm gonna do that successfully my first try. Yeah, it's not that's not gonna happen. Whereas the the individual watching the YouTube videos, he might say, watch a video of Australian rules football and be like, WHOA, that's weird. I didn't know there was Australian rules football and that's the end of it. Where he had more persistence, he might

be like, well, I'm gonna really look into this. I'm gonna maybe, you know, get into watching Australian roles football. Maybe I'm going to start a league. You know. There would be this this higher level of engagement with the topic. Yeah, and there would be this other thing called self transcendence, and we'll talk about that right after this break. All right, we're back. We're ready to self transcend letting right now. Okay, that's not the same thing as it. Yeah, okay, so

self transcendence. We know about this in terms of let's say that the flow state. This is something that um, you're doing that you're really invested in, but you're also getting a lot of reward out of you. That's again what helps with the pursual and the persistence is that you're achieving this state of flow, this self transcendence. Yeah, like it's it's it's not like I'm going to work on painting these miniatures and I'm gonna get really good

at it. I'm gonna get really good. You know, you're not thinking like that, you get you're losing yourself in the process of doing it. Like the again, the guy making the squirrel suit, he is into the process of doing it to the point where he's not thinking about this is a results oriented adventure, right right, So, I mean it's the short term payoff with a long term right. And I was even thinking about this novelty and genius because we've talked about this before. In fact, when we

were covering I believe it was the podcast on Einstein's brain. Right, Well, thanks the brain of a genius. It's not just a purely anatomical exercise because you're gonna have a genius level brain, but it's only being used to watch YouTube videos. Right. But the and we talked about this to this this uh, this idea that the brain is not a static thing. There's something called neural plasticity, which means that your brain

can change throughout your lifetime. And one of the key ingredients in changing your brain for the better at least is having new experiences. And when we talked about genius in the podcast about Einstein, we talked about how some people actually are more genetically predisposed to be open to

new experiences, and that certainly helps. But anytime you have a new experience, um, you know, even like if you're right handed and you brush your teeth with your left hand, or you juggle and you're not a juggler, you're creating new white cells, these glial cells, and you want to do you want to throw in a juggling shown you. I'm just thinking about, like like should we all do that?

Should we all go home this evening or you know, the next scheduled brushing in our day, we should use an opposite hand just to yeah, because this is the glial cells, these white cells which are created from new experiences. These are the things that help strengthen our helps think faster, connect more ideas, new ideas, UM, and again neuroplasticity. We

can continue to change our brain as we age. Um. Does it help if we have more experiences before the age of twenty Yeah, yeah, because the bulk of your brain is going to be established by age twenty UM. So it's great for kids to have as many new experiences and new skills as possible. But that doesn't mean that we're stuck with the same clump of three pounds, you know. For the restaurants, it's it's certainly what you have.

Like going to museums is important when you're when you're growing up, traveling to whatever extent is manageable, it just helps change you. Like I think I look back on like you said, I feel like any travel, any worthwhile trip changes who you are. You don't just go to somewhere like like a Thailand or a Coasta, Rica or whatever. You don't you don't just go to and come back. You you go to and you come back with a little of it in you, you know. Yeah. Yeah, because

and I'm not just talking about lower intestinal infections. Yeah, I would just say or the Thaigh red Bull that you speak so fondly of, Yeah, that was good. But and like, I look back on trips that I took before the age of twenty and I feel like they

definitely had an influence on decisions I made later. And however, the world following Yeah, and again, in a very basic level, there's those white uh you know, breen cells being created, and it's just lovely to think that all these things are happening behind the scenes and all you have to do is brush your teeth with a non dominant hand and when you master that, moved to your feet. Brushing

with your feet. Yeah, sure, why not? So it kind of both new affiliate downstad it boils down like a lot of things in human nature, you kind of want a moderation of it, like too much neophilia. You end up just being this YouTube junkie who maybe doesn't even leave the house because he's not willing to actually or she is not willing to actually invest in this novelty seeking. They're not they're not actually getting any kind of transcendent

experience out of it. And then you have the other individual who is not leaving the room because they don't want the new experiences, right, They're they're afraid of encountering them to log Yeah, neophiliax UM. In the past have been tagged as as um as being a bit flighty or impulsive or irritable um. And then neophobes again not wanting to leave the house um, which is the extreme, extreme,

extreme example. But again, all of this is changeable, and it depends on the experiences that you have throughout life. A good example is Eleanor Roosevelt. I mean, she was certainly a neophobe in her early life, but through her experiences sort of switched over to neophilia UM. So it's not again, it's just like the brain. It's it's not a static thing, um, just like your personality is not

static and very much informed by your brain. And I was even thinking about the podcast that we did about how to Change your Brain the Hard Way John Gage, who had um, you know, steel rod go through his head and was his personality was completely changed. And of course we don't need to all put steel rods in our head to significantly change our world views or personality. That it is interesting to think about all the little different ways in life that we can change the way

we think. All right, So UM, on that note, let's see what the neophiles out there and the listening audience had to say, let's call over the robot. All right, here's here's a little email from a listener by the name of Don Don Wrightson and says, Robert and Julie, thank you for the great podcast. My inner geek is very happy. I just listened to your monogamy shamogamy podcast, and I have to say I can never resist a

George Michael reference. However, as the queen of pop culture references, I must insist that it was the I Want Your Sex video that featured George Michael scrawling the world monogamy on his lover's back and red lipstick. Of course, thanks for being a part of what is now a fun commute. Don So yeah, I think we who were thinking it was is it freedom but not un totally makes sense that it was I Want Your Sex. We have to give George Michael a little apology there for tonal consistencycause

it turns out I Want Your Sex. Well no, I don't know, maybe there's still a weirdness there, but at any rate, it makes a little more sense with I don't know. We we clearly need to go back on our George Michael catalog and revisit. All right, there's another one. This one is from Sean in Ottawa, Canada. Hi, long time listener, first time writer, persistent procrastinator. I did have

one comment on your Gay Animals podcast. You repeated the danger of anthropomorphizing animals, which I feel does us a greater disservice in the end, which is failing to biomorphize humans. Uh. The very fact that research into animal sexuality can help shed light on human sexuality points to the fact that try as we might to think ourselves separate from the

rest of nature, we most certainly are not. There maybe qualities and motivations that guide human behavior that simply don't exist or correlate outside of our culture, but not when it comes to the birds and the bees. We are all animals in the end. Some are more complex, some more social, some more adaptable. Anthromomorphize away and in doing so keep biomorphizing us. Huh. I thought that was really interesting.

We I apologize. I don't remember the person who put on our Facebook page a comment about the same episode, but he was sort of talking the taking the opposite tact would which would be that we are not We can't create ourselves with animals because then we're you know, condoning incest or rape or other things. UM, so I don't. This is all really interesting conversation that came from this. Um,

both sides of the perspective. I always like to get different when we get emails about different sides of it, because it makes me feel like everybody is really for coming in on the conversation and considering all parts of it. Stimulating the brain tanks for sure. UM. We also heard from a listener by the name of h Ta Ta right soon and says, do you Robert and Julie, I sent this email last week, only to listen to one of the more recent podcasts this morning and discovering that

your email has changed. And again we should mention this at the end of the podcast too, but we are now blow the mind at Discovery dot com right Um, anyway,

should continues. I just finished listening to the Santa Claus Machine and wanted to let you know about something in graphic novel Land that is very on topic with the Universal Creator Machine in trans Metropolitan by Warren Ellis, there are makers which create whatever you want you need in your home, mostly food, but some of them have been modded to create weapons, humorous part of the plot involves the makers getting hooked on drugs. Because they can synthesize anything,

why not making toxicans for themselves. That has since been stopped by some modifications by the producers of the maker. Additionally, since everyone has them, there is a sort of hierarchy of inputs. The official maker food. The source of the output is base block, something that is super dense and has to be replaced every so often. However, the poor who cannot afford these these blocks collect garbage from the streets and feed the makers. Anything goes. If you have

a chance check trans Metropolitanality. It's pretty excellent about a rogue journalist in a very technological future. Indeed, I've I haven't read the entire series, but I did read the first not In addition, like the first volume of trans Metropolitan, it's pretty gonzo. Character Spider Jerusalem is kind of this like futuristic uh Like, he starts off kind of like this bearded Alan Moore character who's held up in this cabin, but then he ends up returning to the city to

do his gonzo journalism. And of course he's kind of a futuristic Huntress Thompson character and all sorts of lackiness occurs after that. I really need to pick him up again, because I did enjoy the first one. I just never got around a reading and against the others everything, I'm here and I'm liking well cool. Um. So yeah, those are some emails from listeners. We we have a whole

folder of them here, and we never used to. There was a time when when we could individually like answer every email that was sent to us, and then that that hasn't only been the case recently, and and we we do receive a lot of really cool emails that I wish we had time to read, but we kind of have to pick and choose at the last minute,

sometimes based on lenk. But that being said, please do communicate with us, because even if you don't respond, we do read them all well, and it also informs you know, the direction of the podcast and what we want to cover and all that good stuff. Yea, because we'll say things like, oh man, that that podcast on such such that was, We've received a lot of comments on that. That's clearly the kind of thing that listeners want to listen to. So let's find something, you know in that

vein because it's for you this. Yeah, yeah, whereas stuff like Stapler Science. We know nobody like you know, we've ever generally and nobody wants to listen to the Stapler podcast. So probably not gonna do it unless you say differently, unless it's like the coolest like futuristic Stapler that could staple me to the ball without harming me right now, and then I could staple myself unstable myself. I don't know why i'd want to do that, but yeah, that's

just an idea, all right. So yes, you can get in touch with us. You certainly can't. There's a little thing helped Facebook. It's kind of taken off, and you can find us on there as a stuff to below your mind and just search for us, follow us, give us more power that way. And then there's another little thing called Twitter, and I'm there. You will find our handle as blow the Mind, So just throw us a

message at blow the Mind follow us on there. We'll throw you links to stuff about upcoming, current and past podcasts, as well as blog entries and who knows, and if you prefer, you can always get your rotary phone out and you can email us at Blow the Mind at discovery dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.