Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman Dr. K: Exposing the Dopamine Crisis—“We’re Being Programmed”
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Jan 13, 2026 
Dr. Alok Kanojia, known as Dr. K, is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and co-founder of Healthy Gamer. He dives into how dopamine-driven habits affect our behaviors and why boredom can actually fuel creativity. Alok discusses the addictive qualities of technology, emerging feelings of isolation, and practical strategies to reclaim healthy dopamine sources. He emphasizes the need for silence and idleness for better decision-making and reframes negative emotions as valuable signals for growth and correction.
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From Gamer To Monastery To Harvard
- Alok Kanojia flunked out of college due to video game addiction and later spent time in an Indian monastery to learn self-understanding.
- That self-study and awareness eventually led him to finish college and later teach at Harvard Medical School.
Games Give Artificial Progress
- Video games are engineered to sit between too easy and too hard, giving guaranteed progress and dopamine.
- That crafted progress hijacks life’s uncertain rewards and makes everyday goals feel less satisfying.
Dopamine Is A Signal, Not The Enemy
- Dopamine is a survival signal for pleasure, craving, and reinforcement, not a villain by itself.
- Technology and substances exploit dopamine to provide rewards without the adaptive benefits they evolved for.