Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman Dr. K: Exposing the Dopamine Crisis—“We’re Being Programmed”
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Jan 13, 2026 
Dr. Alok Kanojia, known as Dr. K, is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and co-founder of Healthy Gamer. He dives into how dopamine-driven habits affect our behaviors and why boredom can actually fuel creativity. Alok discusses the addictive qualities of technology, emerging feelings of isolation, and practical strategies to reclaim healthy dopamine sources. He emphasizes the need for silence and idleness for better decision-making and reframes negative emotions as valuable signals for growth and correction.
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You Control The First Hour
- Program yourself, don't let devices program you; start each day with intention before tech exposure.
- Do whatever you wish you did more before touching a single piece of technology.
Pleasure Versus Contentment
- Pleasure (dopamine) and contentment (serotonin) feel different and often trade off against each other.
- People lacking contentment tolerate less delayed or low-intensity rewards and chase immediate pleasure instead.
Turn Emotions Into Signals
- Ask "What is this emotion trying to tell me?" to convert feelings into useful information.
- Identify the problem signaled by sadness, guilt, shame, or anger and then pick corrective actions.