Dopamine Markets

The Medium is the Money

Nearly everything has a price: viral tweets get paid by the view, celebrity engagements have odds posted before the proposal, the Nobel Prize committee…

Dec 12 • Shreyas Hariharan

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The Gambler's Goal is Not to Win but Simply to Continue

The killer feature of slot machines isn't that they promise jackpots, but that they make players stop caring about winning entirely. How does this apply…

Dec 7 • Shreyas Hariharan

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November 2025

The Modern Man is Buddha Watching Himself on TV

The smartphone is the medium through which we process everything about ourselves.

Nov 16 • Shreyas Hariharan

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October 2025

Investing is Entertainment and Traders are Celebrities

The American Dream is to get rich *quick*.

Oct 31 • Shreyas Hariharan and Evan

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The Lottery-fication of Everything

Parlays, zero day options, and perpetuals have gone mainstream. The world is getting stranger.

Oct 20 • Shreyas Hariharan

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The Psychology of a Gambling Game

There are three types of games, but only one lends itself to becoming habitual, mainstream gambling products.

Oct 4 • Shreyas Hariharan

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September 2025

The Business of Sportsbooks is Built on Losers

A deep dive into the economics of sportsbooks, why they ban the best bettors, and how the law protects this.

Sep 29 • Shreyas Hariharan

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How Did Sports Betting Become Legal in the US?

In 2018, the Supreme Court repealed a 26-year federal ban on sports betting. This ruling unleashed the biggest gambling boom in America’s 249-year…

Sep 21 • Shreyas Hariharan

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Financial Speculation in Ancient Rome

Today, people believe the path to escape the permanent underclass is not through hard work but by financial speculation. Ancient Romans thought the…

Sep 12 • Shreyas Hariharan

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