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Would you help to get the meaning of "Wired " in this context please :

And something I think we're going to be hearing more about in the near future is that there's a fundamental mismatch between the way our brains are wired and this behavior of exposing yourself to stimuli with intermittent rewards throughout all of your waking hours.

It's one thing to spend a couple of hours at a slot machine in Las Vegas, but if you bring one with you, and you pull that handle all day long, from when you wake up to when you go to bed: we're not wired from it.

— Dr Cal Newport at TEDxTysons

Andrew Leach
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Radwan Cherfy
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1 Answers1

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In this context, the word wired is used to compare the human brain to a piece of electrical equipment. A mixer, for example, is wired to rotate a blade when you push a button. It may have different speeds, but it can't change its basic function. A mixer won't dry your laundry, no matter what button you push.

To a certain extent, we can change the functioning of our own brains. We can learn new tasks and new attitudes. What we can't change is the way we respond to basic stimuli, such as light and heat. Using a smart phone, in the way Newport describes it, involves a series of responses from us, tied to a series of rewards. It's a form of addiction, which is a deliberate misuse of our wiring. We need to earn our rewards, that is, our brains expect us to do work that corresponds to the value of the reward. That's how we are wired.

Ralph Crown
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