Why You Can’t Stop Chasing the Next New Thing (Ft. Eric Athas)

New York Times editor and Saying No to New author Eric Athas explores why our brains are drawn to novelty, how businesses remove the friction between desire and consumption, and why reclaiming a few moments to think could radically change the choices we make.

From dopamine and social media to clutter, persuasion and the disappearing “new thing gap,” this conversation is ultimately about learning to say no to meaningless novelty so we can say yes to what actually matters.

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Timestamps:

00:00 — The question that opens every interview: “Who are you?”

02:44 — Why opportunities for deep thinking are disappearing

04:59 — Turning a childhood disadvantage into a strength

07:39 — Inside Eric’s work at The New York Times

10:09 — Navigating journalism, truth and trust in a chaotic era

13:09 — Why Saying No to New is a work of journalism

14:30 — The contradiction: an early adopter who learned to say no to new

17:13 — When new things start creating more problems than they solve

19:52 — Dopamine, discomfort and why our brains chase novelty

22:23 — Thinking as a superpower in a frictionless world

23:22 — The “new thing gap” — and why it has almost disappeared

27:07 — The sophisticated influence machine behind what we buy

30:52 — Decluttering as an audit of yesterday’s decisions

32:20 — What clutter and constant task-switching do to our attention

34:08 — Why saying no to new can help us discover the right kind of new

35:33 — The surprising relationship between exploration and happiness

37:24 — How to see novelty hiding inside familiar experiences

39:46 — Finding joy in what was hiding in plain sight

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Special props 👇

Music: Clouds - Joakim Karud

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