If youre expecting not to like this email, you probably wontPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter2 min readJust now-- Welcome back to the Medium NewsletterIssue #188: hot sauce, getting older, and titrating your news intakeBy Harris SockelBe honest what did you expect when you opened this email?Information? Entertainment? Controversial opinions? Obvious ones? All of the above? None??Whatever your expectations, theyre shaping your experience of what youre reading right now. Our perceptions of reality are fragile things, Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health F. Perry Wilson, MD MSCE writes. What you expect to think and feel not only shapes your perception, but it literally changes whats happening in your brain.Wilson cites a study of hot sauce. People volunteered to sit inside fMRI machines while being fed one of a few hot (or hot-ish) sauces through a tube. (I would never in my life volunteer for this, but good for them!)A warning flashed before each sauce: one jalapeo pepper for mild, two jalapeos for very hot. The most significant finding: People who already hated spicy food hated it more when they were warned about it first. If you think you wont like something, knowing its coming intensifies your dislike. And not just on a subjective level, but on a real neurological one.After seeing two jalapeos, the fMRI reveals that your spiciness neural pathways lightup theyre on a hair trigger to cause pain perception and when the spicy squirt comes, they fire. You feel the spice that much more intensely.I think there are all kinds of extensions of this idea: If you expect to hate a move, a job, an assignment, or a person you will. More! On the other hand, if you go into it with an open mind, or even a little distracted by something else, you might still dislike it but not as much. Lighting round: Great, recent Medium stories in 1 sentence or lessIf a project intimidates you, ask yourself this clarifying question: Why am I doing the thing Im about to do?Loneliness is simply the difference between your desired and perceived connections, the key word there being perceived.As you get older, you start to develop an intuitive understanding of what you want to say no to even if youre not sure what to say yes to.Your daily dose of practical wisdomYou probably dont need to spend more than an hour a day keeping up with the news.