how do you measure long-term fulfillment, dopamine?

So your problem is things that trick us into short term dopamine hits, and you want more things that trick us into long term dopamine hits.

I suppose i understand.

> how do you measure long-term fulfillment?

"I'll know it when I see it."

I realize that's a bit of a cop-out answer, but I also believe it's the correct one. It really isn't that difficult to figure out whether your product is exploitive.

What goals are you optimizing for? If the answer is: "I want people to spend as much time looking at my product as possible," that's going to lead you to bad places. If, however, you explicitly want to help people do X as efficiently as possible, as be done with it, you're probably on the right track.

If you're making an entertainment product, the calculous is a bit different, but still similar. Are you telling a compelling story that will teach us something about the world, or exercise our minds in new ways?

You can't start with a subjective assessment and then act like its objective and applies to others.

also, I'll know it when i see it is the same as saying I'll know it when i get a hit of dopamine -which was my substituted answer.

Edit; can't respond so will here..

>experiencing stories, learning new skills..doesn't take advantage of this very specific slot machine bug

But it does, it just does it in a way you approve of, which i think is fine, except when you think others should value what you value..

It absolutely is subjective. Two people may reasonably come to different conclusions on whether a given product is exploitive, particularly along the edges. Such is life. That doesn't make the analysis useless.

Dopamine is fine, it just isn't enough by itself. Playing a slot machine for days on end feels crappy in hindsight, even for the addicts who can't stop themselves from continuing to play. I'm concerned about how much of modern life is effectively becoming a normalized slot machine.

If you want to call experiencing stories, learning new skills, and forging new connections "long term dopamine", fine, maybe that's what it is. However, it doesn't take advantage of this very specific slot machine bug in our minds in order to become compulsive.