FoodNeverComes, a website created by two Indian developers, lets users browse and 'order' food that never arrives, simulating the pleasure of shopping without actual purchase. The site belongs to a growing genre of 'dopamine sites' that recreate consumption rituals by leveraging the psychological gap between anticipation and actual ownership, exploiting how dopamine drives wanting rather than satisfaction.
Island is a screen time management app that uses dopamine-driven mechanics from idle games to encourage users to spend less time on their phones. Rather than blocking access, it rewards users with in-game progression when they stay off their devices, leveraging prediction error and loss aversion to create positive behavioral incentives.
An article examining how AI tools, despite their impressive speed and productivity gains, can create cognitive dysfunction through addictive interfaces that prioritize fast reactions over deliberate thinking. The author argues that users risk confusing System 1 (fast, intuitive) thinking with System 2 (slow, analytical) work, leading to unproductive patterns like compulsive rabbit holes and scattered task-switching.