# Environment shapes our thoughts * You are the average of the six people you spend the most time around * Obviously not strictly true, but the actions of the people you spend time around subconsciously normalize some activities and stigmatize others. Seeing other people eat uncontrollably normalizes eating uncontrollably. Seeing other people exercise regularly normalizes exercising regularly. The same is true for thoughts. * On a shorter timescale, if you’re around people who are doing work, it generally makes you want to do work etc. * Cities tell you that you should want certain things * [[Cities and Ambition - PG]] * Cities tell you that you should take certain paths to getting the things you want * Discomfort matters * Environment can affect scarcity vs. plenty mindsets on many fronts - in terms of money, friends, * Especiall * The dominant modes of socializing can both shape how you spend your time (and thus the types of conversations you have) but also shape your opinion of the people doing it based on your feelings towards the activity. If going to loud bars is the dominant mode of socialization and you don’t like loud bars, you will generally have a lower opinion of most people. * The mindset that you need to adopt in order to be successful at a thing actually shapes how your brain works after a time. This is the classic trap with the idea that “I will make a bunch of money so that I can do the thing I actually want to do” — [[The idea that you need to make a lot of money before you can work on sweet sci fi shit is false]] ### Related * [[Legibility forces you to fall back on conventional framings which causes you to think about the thing in a conventional way]] * [[You are the average of the five people you spend the most time around]] * [[Where do ideas come from?]] * [[Human interactions are path dependent]] [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Environment+shapes+our+thoughts) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Environment+shapes+our+thoughts)