Speed, Velocity, a Pump of Adrenaline and The Feel-good Hormones
Almost everyone and anyone has made these statement at some point in their lifes "if only I had more time" ,"I need more time", If only I can do this faster", "If only I could go back in time (The Flash, you should really check that series, it makes me feel smart and very dumb at the same time, no series has done that) all these statements ooze nothing but a necessity for time and speed(the need to do things faster) and you know what they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention". In my own perpective the need to do things faster and and get thing done faster is the mother of invention. In fact laziness is the mother and motivation behind invention, if you understand my perspective, and we humans are naturally programmed to be lazy (Hey!!! I'm not saying you lazy ), so what do we do, we invent things that helps our laziness and save our time and energy.
Bill gate said and I quote "I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."
Take a moment to think about that before you keep reading.
Now, for some unknown reasons, I have been fascinated by the concept of speed and velocity lately, I wonder why? (Well I would say I have been following the series The Flash Lately maybe that why). I don’t have a Bachelor degree in physic (but now I feel like getting one), in fact my physics, I would say is slightly below average, I know this because, I have seen well grounded physicist really get engrossed with solving complex physics or physics related problems, and one thing is clear, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
From my little knowledge of physics;
Speed is the time taken to cover a distance, a scalar quantity with magnitude but no direction
Basically you can say it is going around without a particular goal or aim in mind, quantity, but no quality.
Velocity is the time taken to cover a point A to point B, a vector quantity with both magnitude and direction
It is basically speed with a purpose, a goal and an aim in mind, it possess both quantity and quality.
3 things I wonder;
What is the true relationship between Velocity (How fast you do things or trend to get things done) and adrenaline?
what is the relationship between velocity, and the feel-good hormones?
what is the relationship between the feel-good hormones, adrenaline, rationality and logical thinking?
The above are my questions, I would really love a satisfactory or near satisfactory answer for the above as I have found none, seriously I could really use a link to probably a research paper that talks about or answer the above questions in details. Feels like my thought are scrambled*
Now Quick story
Recently, I was a passenger on an over speeding bike, this bike was literally going so fast , this was obvious from the jaw dropping reaction from passer-by as they remained speechless, even a toddler could tell. Logically speaking, the driver needed to be cautioned and I was being compelled to do so as either he was on drugs and losing his mind or he had a death wish and was looking for someone to tag along with him to the afterlife, which definitely was me the passenger, Either way, it was clear we might die. He was not breaking his speed anytime soon, if anything, he was going to step it up a notch, I couldn’t look at the speedometer. The logical thing to do was to caution him but I didn't, why? I was enjoying this, I was enjoying the feeling of staring death in the face, maybe I was the one with a death wish. It felt like a drug, probably the adrenalin pump. No doubt the feel good hormone were being released, making me lose rationality and logicality. He was going so fast yet his control was impeccable, I felt I could trust him with my life (Behold!!! take my heart for I have no use for it, well at that moment). He went through a narrow opening, a narrow opening in which on the other end was a cliff, any slight miscontrol and we were done , people screamed it was obviously looking like the end, I could feel my heart skip, my throat became tight, death was looking imminent, but we overcame. We just stared death in the eyeballs and we lived to tell the tale. He kept on going and I still didn’t caution him, my brain was obviously telling me to, but my emotion kept overriding such logicality and rationality, in fact you could say I wanted more , I wanted to see more, feel more this obviously wasn’t me. Long story short we got to our destination unscathed, I got off the bike looked at him with an exciting grin on my face and said “that was some risky stuff you pulled there, we could have died” he replied “but we didn’t, now we feel more alive” He was actually right in a very wrong way, I really felt more alive, my hands were literally still shaking. I waved him good bye and he was off
The point is, we humans are always looking for new and fresh experience something that will cause an adrenalin surge or cause the release of the feel good hormone, why do you think people do drugs, or love sex? They need something to feel more alive, a fresh feeling, a better experience. In search of this feeling we do things ranging from breaking rule especially if nothing is at stake, over speeding on a bike or car, jumping off cliffs into a pool, sky diving, what is the similarity in all these, they are dangerous,risky, life threatening situation.
Technically speaking the more speed or velocity is involved in a particular activity in most cases, the more risky and thrilling such activity is,ceteris parebus
Looking at it from another perspective, we tend to do things faster when we are in a good mood compared to being in a bad mood. Whether it is doing things fast or slow, it all boils down to mood or how fast you are able to process information. Your mood determines how motivated you are to do things likewise in the case of adrenalin which which improves reflexes and reduces our reaction time especially in dangerous situation, actually being in a dangerous situation also is a form of mood or more appropriately emotion.
The release of the feel good hormone are usually emotion based, snd emotion in most cases overrides rationality and logicality. Adrenalin, also known as the fight or flight hormone is purely based on feelings of fear or threat. Trust me people will exhibit animalistic instincts when faced with desperate situations. A situation of life and death. It is scale of preference, the need to stay alive will always be top priority. It a need not a want.
Key takeaway ; Your emotions are affected by hormones, everyday experience and activities, this ultimately affects your mood. Your mood determines how fast or how slow you tend to get things done in a given situation (your reaction time ). Increased velocity could cause an increase in feel-good hormones or cause an adrenalin surge improving the way or manner in which you get things done. Its velocity in relation to or affected by a pump of adrenalin and the feel-good hormones or the other way round. Think about that for a moment
Thanks for your attention.
References/Resources
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