The Brain Chemical Behind Every Craving You’ve Ever Had, and How to Finally Take Control of It
A deep dive into Taming the Molecule of More by Michael E. Long
Why does the new phone lose its shine within a week? Why does a promising relationship sometimes cool off right after it becomes official? Why can we sit down meaning to check one notification and resurface forty minutes later having no memory of the scroll? Michael E. Long, co-author of the bestselling The Molecule of More, has spent years explaining the answer to questions like these, and it always comes back to the same chemical: dopamine.
His follow-up book, Taming the Molecule of More: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Dopamine Work for You, picks up where the theory left off and gets practical. Where the original book explained why dopamine drives so much of human behaviour, this one is about the how: how to stop being yanked around by your own brain chemistry, and how to actually use dopamine’s power on purpose instead of being used by it.
This isn’t a book telling you to suppress desire or become a monk. It’s a guide to understanding the specific mechanics of the dopamine system so you can work with it, whether that means finally getting off the doomscroll, breaking a compulsive shopping habit, reigniting a relationship that’s gone flat, or channelling that restless, always-wanting-more energy into something that actually builds a better life.
Below is a full breakdown of the book’s core ideas, along with ten practical tips you can start using today, each with a real-world example so the ideas actually land.
Who Is Michael E. Long, and Why Does He Understand This So Well?
Michael E. Long trained as a physicist before becoming an award-winning speechwriter, screenwriter, and playwright, with more than twenty of his shows produced on New York stages. That unusual combination, hard science plus a career built on understanding what makes people tick emotionally, shows up clearly in his writing. He co-authored The Molecule of More with psychiatrist Dr Daniel Z. Lieberman, a book that became an international bestseller translated into more than twenty languages for its explanation of how dopamine shapes desire, ambition, love, and addiction.
Taming the Molecule of More is Long’s solo follow-up, written specifically because readers of the original kept asking the same question: now that I understand why I behave this way, how do I actually change it? The book was named one of The Next Big Idea Club’s Best Non-Fiction Books of 2025, and it leans heavily on both the neuroscience and Long’s gift for making complex ideas feel usable rather than academic.
The Core Idea: Dopamine Promises, It Never Delivers
The central concept running through the book is the difference between wanting and liking. Dopamine is the molecule of anticipation, the chase, the pursuit of something better, newer, or more exciting. It fires hardest not when you get the thing you want, but in the moments leading up to it. Once you actually have it, dopamine’s job is essentially done, and other, calmer chemicals, like serotonin and oxytocin, are meant to take over and let you actually enjoy and appreciate what you now have.
The problem is that modern life is exceptionally good at hijacking the wanting system while starving the liking system. Social media, in particular, is engineered around unpredictable rewards, exactly the kind of novelty and uncertainty that keeps dopamine firing indefinitely, which is why a five-minute check can swallow an hour without ever producing real satisfaction. The same pattern shows up in shopping, dating apps, career chasing, and the low hum of always wanting the next thing.
Long’s argument is that you can’t, and shouldn’t, try to eliminate dopamine’s pull. Instead, the goal is to recognise when you’re stuck purely in the wanting loop, and to deliberately build in the conditions that let the liking, satisfaction, and presence actually catch up.
10 Practical Tips From Taming the Molecule of More (With Real Examples)
1. Learn to Tell Wanting From Liking
Before you chase something, pause and ask whether you actually expect to enjoy having it, or whether you just want the hit of getting it. These are genuinely different experiences, driven by different brain chemistry, and confusing them is at the root of most dopamine-driven regret.
Example: Someone browsing an online shop late at night might feel a strong pull to buy something they don’t need. If they pause and ask “will I actually enjoy using this next week, or do I just want the excitement of the purchase right now?”, the honest answer is often the latter, and that alone is often enough to close the tab.
Try this: Before your next non-essential purchase, wait 24 hours and ask yourself, out loud if it helps, whether you’re chasing the item or chasing the anticipation of getting it.
2. Interrupt the Doomscroll Loop on Purpose
Social media platforms are built around unpredictable, novel content, precisely the recipe that keeps dopamine firing without ever satisfying it. Long argues that willpower alone rarely beats this kind of design. What works better is changing your environment so the loop is harder to fall into in the first place.
Example: Someone who moves social apps off their home screen, turns off notifications, and sets their phone to greyscale during certain hours often finds their usage drops significantly, not because they suddenly developed more self-control, but because they removed the small design triggers that kept re-hooking their attention.
Try this: Pick one app you tend to doomscroll on and add a genuine friction point today, remove it from your home screen, log out after each use, or set a hard time limit that actually locks the app.
3. Make Multitasking Work for You, Not Against You
Dopamine loves novelty, which is why switching between tasks can feel more stimulating than sticking with one. But constant task-switching usually reduces the quality of your output. Long’s advice isn’t to ban multitasking altogether, it’s to use it strategically, pairing genuinely low-focus tasks with a bit of novelty, while protecting focused work from interruption.
Example: Folding laundry while listening to a podcast uses novelty productively, since neither task demands your full attention. Trying to write a report while checking messages every few minutes does the opposite, since both actually require focus, and the switching cost quietly wrecks your output.
Try this: Sort your current to-do list into ‘needs full focus’ and ‘can run alongside something else.’ Protect the first category from any multitasking at all.
4. Understand the Dopamine Arc in Relationships
Long explains why the early, giddy stage of a new relationship often cools once things become predictable, that intense early spark is largely dopamine responding to novelty and uncertainty. Long-term relationship satisfaction depends on deliberately building novelty and shared new experiences back in, rather than assuming the spark should simply last on its own.
Example: A couple who fall into a routine of the same dinner, same sofa, same evening every night may find their connection feels flatter over time, not because anything is wrong, but because there’s no novelty left to fire the system. Deliberately trying a new restaurant, taking a class together, or planning a weekend somewhere unfamiliar can reintroduce some of that early spark.
Try this: Plan one genuinely new shared experience with your partner this month, something neither of you has done before, rather than repeating a familiar favourite.
5. Recognise Compulsive Shopping for What It Is
Because dopamine fires hardest in anticipation rather than possession, the moment of clicking ‘buy’ often delivers more of a rush than actually owning the item days later. Recognising this pattern is often enough to interrupt it.
Example: Someone who notices they feel a rush while adding items to a basket, and a flat, anticlimactic feeling once the parcel arrives, can use that observation directly. Naming the pattern out loud (“this is the anticipation talking, not an actual need”) often breaks its grip surprisingly quickly.
Try this: Keep a simple note of your last five impulse purchases and how you felt about each one a week later. Most people notice a clear pattern almost immediately.
6. Use Novelty Deliberately to Fuel Creativity
Dopamine isn’t only a liability, it’s also the engine behind curiosity, exploration, and creative thinking. Long encourages channelling that restless, wanting-more energy into deliberate creative exploration rather than only defending against it.
Example: A writer who feels stuck might deliberately expose themselves to something unrelated and novel, a new genre of music, an unfamiliar neighbourhood, a conversation with someone outside their usual circle, and often finds fresh ideas surface precisely because the dopamine system responds so strongly to new input.
Try this: Next time you’re stuck on a creative or work problem, deliberately introduce one small, unrelated novelty into your day before returning to it, a new route to work, a different café, an unfamiliar podcast.
7. Watch for Unhealthy Obsession With Work
The same wanting loop that drives shopping and social media can quietly take over your relationship with work, particularly when achievement itself becomes the anticipated reward, always chasing the next promotion, next deal, next milestone, without ever landing in genuine satisfaction.
Example: Someone who hits a major career goal and feels a brief high before immediately fixating on the next target, without ever pausing to actually enjoy the achievement, is caught in a pure dopamine loop. Deliberately marking and savouring the win, rather than rushing past it, is what allows satisfaction chemicals to actually catch up.
Try this: Next time you hit a genuine goal, deliberately pause for a full day before setting the next target. Use that day specifically to acknowledge what you achieved.
8. Build in Deliberate ‘Here and Now’ Time
Because dopamine is fundamentally future-oriented, always about the next thing, Long stresses the importance of deliberately protecting time for activities that live entirely in the present: physical touch, savouring food slowly, being fully absorbed in nature, or unhurried conversation, none of which depend on anticipation to feel good.
Example: Eating a meal while scrolling a phone keeps the dopamine system engaged with anticipation of the next post, which quietly reduces how much satisfaction you get from the food itself. Eating the same meal without a screen, paying attention to taste and texture, engages the present-focused systems dopamine tends to crowd out.
Try this: Pick one meal a day to eat without any screen present. Notice whether it changes how satisfying the meal feels.
9. Design Friction Into Bad Habits and Remove It From Good Ones
Long’s practical advice repeatedly comes back to environment design rather than sheer willpower. Since dopamine responds heavily to ease and immediacy, making a bad habit slightly harder to access, and a good one slightly easier, produces outsized results compared to relying on discipline alone.
Example: Someone trying to read more and scroll less might leave their phone charging in another room overnight and leave a book on their pillow instead. Neither choice requires willpower in the moment, both simply make the desired behaviour the path of least resistance.
Try this: Pick one habit you’re trying to build and one you’re trying to break. Change one small physical detail in your environment to make each slightly easier or harder to access.
10. Track the Pattern, Not Just the Moment
Because dopamine’s pull is so immediate and persuasive in the moment, Long recommends stepping back periodically to look at your patterns over time, rather than judging any single craving or slip in isolation. This mirrors how the book frames lasting change: as a gradual retraining of habitual loops, not a single act of willpower.
Example: Someone trying to cut down on late-night social media use might have an off night and scroll for an hour. Judged in isolation, that feels like failure. Judged over a month, if the overall trend is downward, it’s actually solid progress, and recognising that keeps people from abandoning the effort entirely after one slip.
Try this: Pick one habit you’re working on and review it weekly rather than daily. Look for the overall trend rather than judging any single day.
Bringing It All Together
The core message of Taming the Molecule of More is refreshingly practical: dopamine isn’t the enemy, and you’re not broken for feeling its pull towards novelty, achievement, and more. The issue is a modern environment, phones, shopping apps, endless content, expertly engineered to keep that wanting system firing without ever letting the satisfaction it promises actually arrive.
Once you understand that gap between wanting and liking, you can start closing it deliberately: interrupting loops that only ever produce more wanting, building small pockets of genuine present-moment satisfaction back into your day, and pointing the same restless energy that drives compulsive scrolling towards curiosity, creativity, and connection instead. None of it requires becoming a different person. It just requires understanding the chemistry well enough to finally work with it instead of being pulled along by it.
🎙️ Unlock More Secrets on the Mind Set in Stone Podcast
If you’re eager to dive even deeper into Taming the Molecule of More by Michael E. Long and uncover more practical ways to apply its teachings, tune into the Mind Set in Stone Podcast! We explore the principles of dopamine, desire, and building a life that actually satisfies you in a way that’s both insightful and entertaining. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube to start taking back control of the chase.
Test Your Knowledge: The Taming the Molecule of More Quiz
See how much you’ve picked up. Answers are at the very bottom, no peeking early.
- What is the main distinction Michael E. Long draws between wanting and liking?
A) They are the same experience with different names
B) Wanting is driven by dopamine and anticipation; liking is driven by satisfaction once you have something
C) Liking only applies to relationships, not objects
D) Wanting only occurs in people with addiction
2. When does dopamine fire most strongly?
A) After you’ve fully enjoyed something
B) During the anticipation and pursuit of something, not after obtaining it
C) Only during sleep
D) It fires at a constant, unchanging rate
3. Why are social media platforms particularly effective at hijacking dopamine?
A) They rely on predictable, repetitive content
B) They’re designed around unpredictable, novel rewards
C) They deliberately avoid using notifications
D) They only affect younger users
4. According to the book, why does the early spark in relationships often fade?
A) Love itself is not a real biological process
B) The novelty and uncertainty that fuelled dopamine decrease as things become predictable
C) It fades due to lack of physical attraction alone
D) It only fades in unsuccessful relationships
5. What does Long recommend as more effective than relying on willpower alone?
A) Ignoring the problem until it resolves itself
B) Designing your environment to add friction to bad habits and remove it from good ones
C) Avoiding all forms of novelty permanently
D) Relying entirely on medication
6. What is Michael E. Long’s professional background?
A) A neuroscientist with a medical degree
B) A physicist turned speechwriter, screenwriter, and playwright
C) A professional therapist
D) A software engineer
7. What does Long suggest doing after achieving a genuine goal?
A) Immediately set a bigger goal without pausing
B) Deliberately pause to acknowledge and savour the achievement
C) Avoid discussing the achievement with anyone
D) Forget about it and move on instantly
8. Why does Long recommend eating meals without a screen present?
A) It has no real effect on satisfaction
B) It removes dopamine-triggering anticipation and allows present-focused satisfaction to register
C) It’s purely a matter of table manners
D) Screens have no connection to dopamine
9. How does Long suggest tracking habit change?
A) Judging every single day in isolation
B) Reviewing patterns over time, such as weekly, rather than single moments
C) Only reviewing progress once a year
D) Avoiding any form of tracking altogether
10. What is Taming the Molecule of More best described as?
A) A purely theoretical companion to the original book
B) A practical, application-focused follow-up to The Molecule of More
C) An unrelated book with no connection to dopamine research
D) A memoir about Long’s personal life
Quiz Answers
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B