Why ambitious people scroll more: [Information Addiction]

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to my journey on learning to become The Attention Master.

If you find yourself constantly consuming new information then episode 27 is for you.

Here is what you are going to learn today:

• How to start treating any addiction.

• Why we constantly seek novelty.

• Actionable steps to escape information addiction.

🙏 But before we jump in, I have one ask 🙏

If you like the newsletter, could you please forward it to a friend / colleague who you think would also enjoy it? It will help to create more and even better content in the future.

Let's dive in!

Let’s be honest: we often lie to ourselves that flipping between Reddit, YouTube, news outlets, or our work apps is beneficial. We call it 'research', 'networking' or 'keeping up to date', but often it's just procrastination wrapped up in a productive-looking package.

Answering emails might be urgent, but is it truly important if it derails our core goals for the day?

In the end, these micro-distractions rob us of deep work, clarity, and the sustained effort required to achieve meaningful goals.

Here’s where this behaviour comes from and what to do about it:

1. The Brain’s Quest - Why We’re Wired for Novelty

Our brains are hardwired to seek novelty, a trait inherited from our ancestors who needed to spot new threats and opportunities to survive.

Whenever we discover something new, our brain rewards us with a hit of dopamine, the same neurochemical linked to pleasure and motivation. It’s why we feel drawn to open just one more tab, scroll one more feed, or peek at the latest news update. We’re chasing that brief spark of curiosity that makes us feel informed and in control.

But in our modern, hyper-connected world, this natural drive can become relentless. As soon as we feel bored or stressed, we reach for something “fresh” to ward off discomfort or potential failure.

2. Is Information Addiction a Real Thing?

Information addiction is the compulsive need to keep gathering data or updates, far beyond what’s truly useful.

A 2019 UC Berkeley study revealed that information activates our reward systems just like junk food or money. We crave it, whether or not it serves a real purpose.

When we block or delete social media apps for being "too distracting," we often turn to information apps like Reddit, news sites, or even Spotify to feed the same itch. Yes, these sources may seem more "intellectual" or "productive", but that's the sneaky part. We tell ourselves we're learning, but more often than not we're just wasting minutes and hours.

3. The Founder’s Dilemma - Ambition Meets Overstimulation

Ambitious people, especially founders, are even more prone to information addiction.

Why is that? Three reasons:

1. The Nature of the Tasks: Founders tackle problems that are characterised by uncertainty, open-endedness and no predetermined steps or timelines. Each project can feel like uncharted territory, fueling stress and fear of failure.
   

2. The Urge for Responsiveness: What unites founders, team leaders, investment bankers and consultants? They are all expected to respond quickly to employee or client requests. Ambitious people don't just get more emails and messages on their phones. They also feel the urge to respond quickly because responsiveness is closely tied to their role, their salary and therefore their status.
   

3. Their Ego or Identity: My founder coach Julius Bachmann likes to say: "You are not your work" (→ great LinkedIn post) - that's the wishful thinking ambitious people should strive for. Nevertheless, work and career success are and always will be extremely important to ambitious people. It's their validation to the outside world (= ego) or to themselves, the inside world (= part of their identity). Since information equals power, it's obvious that ambitious people thirst for it.

Now the urge for responsiveness (2) pulls you into your phone constantly.

Constant use of your phone causes context switching.

Context switching drains your mental resources.

When you're drained, you can't work on difficult or annoying things.Your willpower to start is low and the friction is very high due to the nature of the tasks (1).

Instead of pushing through the messy middle, it's easier to switch tasks, check a new article, refresh emails, scan Slack notifications - anything that feels 'useful' for the moment.

Because when it feels useful, it flatters the ego or fits your desired identity (3).

So your brain has presented you with an excuse that you now believe.

And the flood of tiny dopamine hits offers relief from the overwhelming thoughts of "What if I can't do this?" or "What if I'm going in the wrong direction with this task?

The downside?

These micro-distractions quickly become a pattern of avoidance, halting real progress and feeding the cycle of stress that started it all.

4. Breaking the Cycle - Actionable Steps

So, what can we do?

First, recognize that information apps aren’t inherently evil; they do serve a purpose. But as with any addiction, moderation is key:

Apply American psychiatrist Anna Lembke’s three steps:

1. Acknowledge the behaviour and that it needs to change. If you're the "Yeah, I know, but it could be worse" type, you can stop reading here.

2. Be honest with yourself (and someone you trust) about why you seek information. Your ego? Your identity? What do you get out of it? And can you get that positive thing from something else, ideally offline?

3. Identify all the ways in which information addiction interferes with your true goals and values.

Second, please, change your mindset.

Human thinking is so reactive, it’s hilarious.

So please, change your perspective and ask yourself instead: How can I create conscious moments now that reduce the number of unconscious moments later?

Simply put, be proactive, not reactive.

Third, leverage these 3 consious strategies:

1. Offline Breaks: A break is an ambitious person's worst enemy. I know that feeling. Doing nothing feels awful to me and to you. And it always will, until you change your perspective on breaks and their impact on this formula: Productivity = Output / Input

Or you might even find something that is more important to you than productivity. The moment I put creativity before productivity, it became easy for me to take breaks.

2. Access Windows: Have you ever noticed that when you're not online, your mind goes blank and you suddenly stop reaching for your phone? That's what many parents do with their children. They tell them that they can only have their phone at a certain time of the day for a limited period of time. Once your brain has accepted this rule, it's at piece for the rest of the day. So: Time-box

Instead of checking your newsfeed or Reddit dozens of times, set specific windows, also called time-islands. Make hard blocking the default, not the exception.

3. Access Frequency: For information apps and websites, I usually recommend the "grandparent rule". The newspaper would only be delivered once a day. Our grandparents would only open it 1-4 times, let's say in the morning, on the way to work and again after work. It's hard to predict for how long, because it really depends on the quality of the content on any given day.

Apply this to the phone: It's fine to consume information 2-3 times a day, as long as it's in deliberately longer sittings. Nobody would have opened a newspaper 57 times a day. So: Restrict the access frequency.

Recap:

• Novelty is a trait inherited from our ancestors to thrive and survive.

• The Viscious Cycle: The Urge for Responsiveness → Phone → Context Switching → Stress → Brain Drain → Low Willpower + High Task Friction → Procrastination + Ambition = Information Addiction → No Breaks → More Stress & Bad Sleep → More Procrastination.

• No change without acknowledging the problem.

• Micro-distractions quickly become a pattern of avoidance.

• Ambitious people avoid tasks primarily because of stress or fear of failure.

• Breaks have a net positive effect on performance. They promote work intensity and therefore productivity.

• The best way to calm your brain is to limit access to information through fixed daily time windows and access restrictions.

This knowledge comes at 0 cost

If you learned something,
be generous and share it with friends or family.

See ya next week
Stephan

Sources:

1. Dexa.ai/Huberman

2. Anna Lembke about Dopamine and Addiction

ONE MORE WAY WE CAN HELP YOU

We know that mastering your attention is extremely difficult. It's not going to happen in a day. That's why we've created Lemio, an app designed to be your personal buddy on the journey.