Ethan Warrener's Blog
September 8, 2025
On Using Ju-Jitsu against Brainrot
I like getting together with different folks and farming out ideas, some hare-brained, some good, some new, some old. The point is that I won’t know what’s what until I’ve talked these ideas through, and I get along well with people who are okay with a little wide-ranging dialogue. One such friend came to me a few months ago with the following notion: what if there was a social media platform that offered the same sort of short dopamine hits, but instead of wasting two hours doomscrolling or whatever verb people attach to unhealthy TikTok usage, you got bite-sized chunks of a novel?
Which ultimately led me to (drumroll): Substack! I’m not sure if the creators of Substack envisioned a social media platform in the way my friend described, but this place is certainly amenable to a micro-content model: you can read short essays or chapters of a story, each potentially just a 1-3 minute read, and you can gradually work your way through something much larger.
Essentially, my friend was talking about gamifying personal development. This is a topic already mastered by numerous apps, companies, and developers. There are apps like Brilliant and Duolingo, numerous health and exercise schemes, and of course Hank Green’s new Focus App.
Some video game developers were talking about this potential to hack our own brains long before it was cool. You can watch a Youtube video about these design principles here, if you’re interested in peeking behind the curtain. However, I’ve found that I’ve grown resistant to much of the gamification designed for my benefit, seeing it all as subconscious trickery, a slight of hand meant to get me to eat my vegetables. Which means, ultimately, we’ll have to meet ourselves halfway. Playing psychological games with ourselves won’t go very far if we don’t also have a commitment to better ourselves in some way.
Which brings me back to my friend. What he mentioned wasn’t just about gamifying personal betterment with dopamine hits; he was also talking about a method of cognitive training called chunking. For a more thorough and engaging examination of this topic and how normal people can become experts in a number of “smart people” skills, watch this Veritasium video here.
I bring this all up for a few reasons: one, to throw my hat in the ring with slightly-better-than-X-updates content. Two, I wanted to recommend some interesting videos and resources to tickle your noggin. Third, I’d like to encourage you, dear reader, to pursue something you suck at. Chunk it into manageable pieces, practice consistently, and who knows how much you can learn?
That’s all I have for this first Substack post, except to remind you to expect occasional updates here. Also, I’ve teamed up with another independent author of post-apocalyptic fiction, Wade Marshall. His work has a very different feel from mine (and if I’m honest, it’s a bit offensive), but you might find it enjoyable. I will be platforming his work on this Substack.
Stay tuned,
Ethan
Which ultimately led me to (drumroll): Substack! I’m not sure if the creators of Substack envisioned a social media platform in the way my friend described, but this place is certainly amenable to a micro-content model: you can read short essays or chapters of a story, each potentially just a 1-3 minute read, and you can gradually work your way through something much larger.
Essentially, my friend was talking about gamifying personal development. This is a topic already mastered by numerous apps, companies, and developers. There are apps like Brilliant and Duolingo, numerous health and exercise schemes, and of course Hank Green’s new Focus App.
Some video game developers were talking about this potential to hack our own brains long before it was cool. You can watch a Youtube video about these design principles here, if you’re interested in peeking behind the curtain. However, I’ve found that I’ve grown resistant to much of the gamification designed for my benefit, seeing it all as subconscious trickery, a slight of hand meant to get me to eat my vegetables. Which means, ultimately, we’ll have to meet ourselves halfway. Playing psychological games with ourselves won’t go very far if we don’t also have a commitment to better ourselves in some way.
Which brings me back to my friend. What he mentioned wasn’t just about gamifying personal betterment with dopamine hits; he was also talking about a method of cognitive training called chunking. For a more thorough and engaging examination of this topic and how normal people can become experts in a number of “smart people” skills, watch this Veritasium video here.
I bring this all up for a few reasons: one, to throw my hat in the ring with slightly-better-than-X-updates content. Two, I wanted to recommend some interesting videos and resources to tickle your noggin. Third, I’d like to encourage you, dear reader, to pursue something you suck at. Chunk it into manageable pieces, practice consistently, and who knows how much you can learn?
That’s all I have for this first Substack post, except to remind you to expect occasional updates here. Also, I’ve teamed up with another independent author of post-apocalyptic fiction, Wade Marshall. His work has a very different feel from mine (and if I’m honest, it’s a bit offensive), but you might find it enjoyable. I will be platforming his work on this Substack.
Stay tuned,
Ethan
