at some point in high school they showed us behaviour modification. about animals receiving shocks or restricted food, some sort of pain and then their behaviour changed. this was presented as though it was an accomplishment. heard about music schools often behind the iron curtain as it was formerly called, strict or cruel methods where they turned out perfect musical robots – damaged – but that’s inconsequential if they won more medals. the brain definitely moves away from pain or moves towards whatever incentivizes it but the brain also has a lower level of repetition, built in. like they could shock a mouse to go through the door on the right instead off the door on the left but i suspect the same thing might happen if you just kept placing the mouse in front of the preferred entrance because of repetition. can you imagine sitting on the subway and not having a zillion advertisements yelling at you? or ads popping up when you are online browsing? or at the start of a film that you paid for – not because you wanted to see advertisements. the people selling products know that repition makes it so even if you hate the product. the first time i heard the taylor swift song i disliked it, the 5th time too, probably now, i am on time #25 and it still is a shitty song, someone else might love it and that’s fair but it’s still drek to me and yet i’m singing it all morning. something i do not like and am aware of not liking. it isn’t because it’s objectively good, it is because of advertising. that’s the shortcut to financial success if you had deep pockets, advertise over and over.