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LSD Microdosing Gaining Popularity For Silicon Valley Professionals (rollingstone.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Rolling Stone reports that an unusual new trend is popping up around the offices of Silicon Valley companies: taking tiny doses of LSD or other psychedelic drugs to increase productivity. "A microdose is about a tenth of the normal dose – around 10 micrograms of LSD, or 0.2-0.5 grams of mushrooms." According to the article, the average user is a 20-something looking to improve their creativity and problem-solving skills. Some users report that the LSD alleviates other problems, like anxiety or cluster headaches. That said, it's important to note that such benefits are not supported by scientific research — yet.
And the sky is gray!
I guess it isn't important to note that this is a Schedule I compound? That many people are jailed for life over such things? That if they were not rich silicon valley elite there's a good chance their lives would be ruined for doing such a thing?
I don't think so. A small increase in creativity for a short period of time maybe. Though quite possibly it makes you *think* you're being more productive, just like people who take concaine *think* they're being incredibly interesting when they chat, whereas usually the complete opposite is the case.
Wouldn't a tenth be decidosing?
My god, that was a bad trip! And it keeps on repeating.
I should note for those unfamiliar that at these intended doses the effect is "something like caffeine", and doesn't produce hallucinations (unless you're doing it wrong).
No different than the anecdote-based non-scientific push for medical/recreational marijuana. I'm surprised there isn't a special placebo legalisation movement
Or he is really pissed off. He'd probably consider this drug abuse.
Actually, I'm surprised that it's taken so long for this idea to be tried.
LSD was the first of the serotonin-modification drugs to be discovered; and apparently the most potent of them. The problem with LSD use in the '50s and '60s was that the doses were so high that the users went off on psychedelic trips. Serotonin modification drugs developed later, starting with the SSRI family such as Prozac and its derivatives and work-alike compounds, turned out to be very valuable in treating depression (although they have their own side effects). The idea of switching back to the original serotonin-modification drug, LSD, but using it at a dosage that doesn't cause the tripping, always seemed like an obvious approach to try.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
So this is like homeopathic drugs where you get all the effects of getting high minus the hangover?
How we got the Internet of Things.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
UX designers are taking LSD? I KNEW IT!!!
This might just explain some of the product/service claims that sales persons tend to make.
The problem I see with this - and base this statement on first hand experience - is that you either tend to be very distracted and always looking at the next thing, or you tend to be incredible focused on one single thing for a very long time.
Granted, dosing wasn't an exact science and far from measured, much less consistency of product between uses. And the only "micro" part of any dose I did was when a friend found some 15+ year old purple microdots when he was moving (they still worked, sorta... only had a couple and there were 4 or 5 of us sharing them and we all ended up adding some blotter to our systems to really get going)
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Obvious snake oil salesman is obvious.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
That explains a lot.
This explains a lot. Tricking your brain doesn't make you more productive, it just makes you feel more productive. Step away from the keyboards, junkies.
Micro doses of potent drugs explains the whole concept of windows 8 and a lot of the invisible features of iphone operating systems. Yep - I've been wondering if they were on drugs as the current designs kinda look like it.
Creative Spelling Copyright (2002). May use without Persimmons
We could take a break when we hit a creative block.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Digging through older code the only logical conclusion I can reach is a lot of LSD must have been involved.
The Reply All podcast did an episode on this. One of the podcasters even went as far as microdosing himself to see if it really worked. It made for an interesting show:
https://gimletmedia.com/episod...
(I don't work for Gimlet. I just thought that it was a good episode.)
They're using microdoses of LSD to act as a stimulative similar to caffeine.
Because coffee is too pedestrian for these overpaid douchebags who are too special to use a coffee maker. And if they did use a coffee maker, it would have to be a $5,000 espresso machine because the $15 Mr Coffee is beneath them.
And this story doesn't even scratch the surface of their self-deluded and self-absorbed transhumanist fantasies.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Now I think I know what he was on. We knew he didn't know what he was talking about and he spewed out Death by PowerPoint that was so bad.
He had to have been on something like LSD to convince himself that he was so damn good, or a damned God.
Very short half life.
LSD doses at tripping strength are tiny by measurement standards. How are they cutting something measured in such tiny amounts with any accuracy? And how do they know the strength of their sources?
Whatever fancy term you call it, taking drugs at work doesn't sound like an entirely sane thing to do, and most certainly not a longterm solution to anything. Because you just know it will become somewhat compulsory once this new creativity becomes the new norm and you won't be able to keep up sober. Oh, Silly Cone Valley...
Bitten Apples are still better than dirty Windows...
This is very similar to the Ballmer peak, only with another drug.
And the leaves that are green turn to brown.
Feeling Groovy
Galifornia Dreaming - The Mamas and the Papas
We won't know anymore whether devastating bugs are due to incompetence or temporary insanity due to a drug overdose.
Now I understand why they needed the increased number of H1B's.... More Test subjects!!
If you are anxious, don't take drugs or alcool. Go to a medical doctor who will prescrive you an anxiolytic like Xanax or Valium, and psychotherapy.
> Not supported by scientific research
Since fucking when has THAT mattered to you diseased weak minded truth hating freaks?
This explains a lot about Silicon Valley and all those crazy startups....
Finally an explanation for Windows 8.
1) It is illegal.
2) Overdosing and purity issues.
3) There are no studies or any hard evidence it is actually useful.
4) Most drugs don't work and the big pharma don't want to develop really good smart drugs (to improve intelligence etc) - I guess some secret laboratories controlled by USA (NSA or something) and secret service in China have developed something useful but they are not giving them to normal folks.
Eveerybody is stupid when it comes to a vast number of things. It's not sufficient to uncategorically say that a group of people aren't stupid when it comes to making a point. From my perspective your description of how addiction works is so lacking details and seeming to get some of the details it does present wrong to be completely useless. That goes for how overdoses happen as well.
such things don't apply. In America we have a multi-tiered justice system. It's pretty well documented. Wealthy and educated people get treatment programs, while poor (and let's face it, black) people get jail. It's because what we're really using our drug policy for is to keep the poors in check. Think of it this way. If your poor chances are you or one of your friends is using drugs to cope with poverty. Now, our drug laws, in particular our asset forfeiture laws are basically guilt by association. Combine that with juries that are inherently conservative (since you generally have to be well off to be able to afford to server on a jury for any length of time).
So when poor people show up in wealthy neighborhoods they not only stick out like a swore thumb, but odds are good the cops can bust them for the drugs at least one of them is carrying. This keeps poor people out of wealthy school districts and parks, and lets the wealthy enjoy their (much, much better) public services.
Basically, our drug policy is central to maintaining our class divide...
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of the effects of most other recreational drugs. Congresses banned them ages ago to stifle debate on our drug policy.
If you want a good example of an "evil" drug that isn't look at Sly Stalone's Steroid use. Sure, it needs to be done under a doctor's supervision, but he's living the life of a man in his 30s while in his 60s. Meanwhile the rest of us pleebs can't get that because baseball and football have vilified the drug.
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It can help reduce prison recidivism. See http://www.psypost.org/2014/01...
The first studies on this were done in the 50's and 60's by Leary et. al. , who also pioneered the use of group therapy for prisoners.
It also seems to help alcoholics. If you google it up you will find that it has a huge potential for therapeutic use and Further research.
Despite growing evedence for useful applications of LSD it was banned in 1966 in a "Reefer Madness" like hysteria.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
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Subject says it.
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but that's just me. Definitely knocked down walls in my mind, but reduced my productivity to none whatsoever. When you're tripping infinity makes total sense. I remember looking at the night sky and all the starts were forming this huge spiral, and just thinking "how could it NOT go on forever? Anything else is would be impossible! duh!", but then the next morning when reality comes back you're like "durrr, how can something just go on forever without any end?". Well, since everything in our life experience (including our life) as a definite end, confronting the possibility that something just goes forever usually hits a road block. LSD is great.
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..., and using these drugs helps criminals.
On the contrary. Making these drugs illegal helps the criminals. If you could buy these drugs in the supermarket (like that other drug, alcohol), no criminal would be interested.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Thanks for share... Nice Post !
http://banatbarbi.blogspot.com
I live in Chicago
The effects of long term use most probably lead to a decrease in mental acclivity, a bit like burning a candle at both ends . "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long"
Is there something special about Silicon Valley professionals that cause the incidence of cluster headaches to be much higher than than in the general population (to the point it's mentioned in the story)? According to Wikipedia at least, 0.2% of people suffer from cluster headaches, which seems pretty infrequent. Compare with migraines for instance, which affect 15% (19% of men), which I don't see too many people getting on a daily basis (my wife suffers, and at one migraine every 1-2 months it's difficult to remember when one caused serious disruption, but then again she's Aussie and thus tougher than most Silicon Valley professional :P ).
Fuck /. mobile. Trying again:
I live in Chicago and was connected to a large group of people who tried LSD microdosing over a long period (a year or more) to see if they could track any tangible benefits. Most folks seemed quite excited about it, talking about increases in energy, work output and creative thinking. But in the end I noticed no discernible change in their lives. Today they are much the same people they were before microdosing. It's possible there are some nice short bursts of good mojo once in a while but I'm highly doubtful of any long term benefit.
I didn't partake in the experiments because I already had a history with LSD. Took a lot of it over a couple of years, believing it was a kind of therapy, which in some sense it was -- it showed me how delicate and maleable subjective reality is and how much that puts our agreed upon objective reality into question. But it also left me struggling to relate to the world and losing focus on the basic but essential minutae of life. Too much LSD can indeed drive you mad. It pulls you into a world that is seductive and difficult to separate from and return to consensus reality. Took me years to re-stabilize.
There is some evidence that he was taking small doses of LSD for this purpose when he helped uncover the double helix structure of DNA: NY Times and Reddit discussion
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
That would be sound advice if he had an actual lawyer who knew that his ownership of a lockpick wasn't illegal. Instead, he only had an overburdened public defender who didn't know better. I wouldn't blame fightermagethief if he didn't break the law.
A tenth of a regular dose is a deci-dose. 1/1,000th would be a milli-dose and a micro-dose would be 1/1,000,000. Honestly you're off by a factor of 100,000.
What if the cursor for my app was a dragon? And as you completed work on the screen it got bigger...it could use flames out of it's mouth to delete files...this is going to be awesome.
I've seen no evidence so far that these claims of positive effects (which are notable by their suspiciously wide variety) aren't just placebo. I like experimenting occasionally with psychedelics and have 10 blotters of 1p LSD waiting for the right moment, but I think it's not helpful to anyone when people make unsubstantiated claims of positive effects about psychedelic substances (and weed). It just makes the community appear eccentric and non-critical.
soylentnews.org
... self-reported results have little credibility ... and those of psychoactive substance use are particularly suspect. ... neither productivity nor creativity gains, even if real, are worth much unless accompanied by good judgement.
And LSD (especially if combined with a stimulant, such as caffeine) is particularly problematic in this respect.
One of its effects is to make the detection of patterns much more pronounced - both conceptually and perceptually.
Thus you may see things that might be there but below threshold, or might be illusionary - such as "trailers" (the perceptual blur behind a moving object from visual persistence, the origin of the "speed lines" drawing convention), the radial lines of light from the gap between a window shade and the window edge projected on the ceiling, the roughness of the ceiling's plasterwork, "auras" (halo-like visual artifacts around objects, especially those for which the brain has special recognition processors, such as people). You see them greatly exaggerated (ceiling roughness looking like it's six inches deep, in necker-cube alternation with rays from the window/shade gap exaggerated to Japanese sunburst-flag contrast levels, auras exaggerated to the visibility of those in religious artworks). You see artifacts WITHIN artifacts, perhaps to several levels (auras with several levels of structure - almost fractal, symmetric patterns elaborated into "mandalas", like Tibetan meditation-focus artwork). You notice things around you that you would normally filter out (animal behavior, plant structure, ...)
Conceptually it works similarly. Weak connections become glaring. Connections between these newly-noticed connections also become noticable, perhaps to several levels of elaboration. Trains of thought chug away for hours, past many switches and crossings, into lands you've never visited, arriving at odd destinations by routes that seem plausible at every step. This may lead you to some valid concept or relation that you would otherwise have missed, and thus actually contribute to creativity.
IF it's REAL.
As with its formalism, the Scientific Method, Half of creativity is finding apparent connections. The other half is sorting out the real ones from the flood of bogus ones that seem plausible but don't apply to the real world, or are just flat-out wrong.
Unfortunately, one of the mechanisms that is affected is the part of the mind that sorts out the real from the bogus. It gets stuck on "That's RIGHT!" Everything you come up with is not just passed, but flagged as brilliant. Handy for folowing a train of thought into strange and wonderful new countries, by not rejecting the path less traveled. Terrible, at least for techies trying to come up with working software, if the second bridge is out, or the third tunnel leaves the real world, and your train of thought takes you several stages into Oz or Never-Never land. (Which, by the way, may be just FINE for fantasy authors.)
Your bullsh*t detector gets stuck on "smells like roses". If you don't get it sorted out as you come down (and the detector starts working a little bit), you may internalize the bogosity you experienced, incorporating it into your mind's idea structure. Do this a lot and you might become the kind of "genius" that nobody understands, not because "their ideas are too complex for ordinary minds to comprehend", but because they've gone loony.
Think of the major figures in the early years of LSD use, some of them certified geniuses when they started, and how they progressively drifted away from conventional rationality into mysticism, and compare it with the above description of the drug's effects.
Now maybe tiny doses of LSD can enable the connection-finding without smashing the bull detector, and actually result in a useful mind enhancement. (That's what they WERE looking for, and why the drugs were labelled "Psychedelic" - mind-expanding - in the first place.) But, IMHO, if there's one drug in existence that is subject to systematic errors in self-perception and errors of judgement, LSD is it.
That explains a lot about the recent trends in UIs...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Never tried LSD, not 100% sure anyone I've known actually did either, but I remember being told that with some people it can do some permanent rewiring of their brain, even after only one use -- and that the 'rewiring' may not be something you wanted. If true, then they're taking an awfully bad risk screwing around with this stuff.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
No wonder so many of these great (on paper) ideas from the technology sector suck so bad in reality
Must be a hoot!
love is just extroverted narcissism
Dude invented LSD and micro dosed at work for half of his life and lived to be 102. Its more likely that the sitting will kill you sooner than the LSD. But that being said, people should be careful with it, because everybody reacts differently and doses are not regulated. I wouldnt be surprised to see doctors dosing patients legally in a few years.
I remeber reading - decades ago - how the US Military (some division or other) was researching drugs that would increase human intelligence - if only for a short while. No doubt that work continued. One of the most promising was "Lysergine", which is (I believe) a chemical percussor to (or derivative of) LSD.
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
You used to be able to buy stuff like this (hell, cocaine was an ingredient in Coca-Cola), but then people abused them which resulted in these drugs being made illegal.
Examples?
False. My calling you names or otherwise being offensive (including, gasp, making racist and sexist statements), for example, however negatively it might affect you and millions of others, does not end my freedom of speech.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Well, this certainly explains IoT...
I'm very surprised we haven't seen any conspiracy nutters yet talking about STARGATE and DMT.
There's a new TV show this season that is all about a smart pill.
seriously. Did it ever occur to you that one of the main reasons people are poor (and stay poor) is grappling with mental illness? When you're wealthy you take drugs under supervision of a doctor. When your poor you take what you can get and hope for the best.
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There are mental asylums full of young people who thought drugs would help them .
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Glad to know all those folks bootlegging cigarettes aren't criminals...Oh, and those Ohio folks crossing into Richmond, IN to get cheaper booze no longer have to be worried about getting picked up. If you have an artificial difference in price, there will be those who exploit it--doesn't matter if it's considered criminal or not. You just end up with a different...ahem..."methods of commerce".
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>Think of the major figures in the early years of LSD use, some of them certified geniuses when they started, and how they progressively drifted away from conventional rationality into mysticism, and compare it with the above description of the drug's effects.
The thing is there's not guarantee that Enlightenment rationality is the be all and end all of mankind's intellectual search. For solving engineering problems, maybe, but living in a world with 7 billion other people (and countless other life forms) with their own wills is not as simple as building a bridge or a rocket. Maybe the part of the LSD that scares STEM types is that you can sense that science simply cannot answer everything and is only one of many "consensus realities" that humans can live in. Your "bullshit detector" is a set of rules you were trained to believe, not an objective truth. Generally I do agree with your points from a rational academic perspective, but the majority of human history was mystical not rational, so in a sense YOU are the one going against consensus reality!
Moreover, would not the Earth revolving around Sun set off many a medieval bullshit detector? The problem with humans is we can not think outside of what Foucault called our "episteme", which is to say, the knowledge (or truth if you prefer) of our epoch. Perhaps LSD can let us peak into other epistemes?
Those truckers aren't killing people because they took EVIL DRUGS. They're killing people because they consciously decided to keep driving instead of sleeping, and if they didn't have amphetamines to help them do so, they'd use something else. Possibly something even worse.
I know it's easier to blame the chemical, but the people are the real problem.
Greetings from the Great North (that is, West St. Paul). I can confirm we've got the same here and at the office in Minneapolis. See you again in 6 months or randomly in an underground tunnel/walkway in the Cities.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
If I had any mod points I'd up you one, AC. That's a very good description of the effect. In my youth I used to use monthly or so. I can honestly say I never had a bad trip. It was always fun. I certainly do not regret it. But I never did anything productive on it. Certainly nothing the later sober me would consider worthy.
I don't know what a micro dose would do but I suspect it would just piss me off.
Because if it's just the elite getting away or the poor not, then it isn't law, is it, it's privilege or persecution.
by research.
Psilocybin, the active ingredient in mushrooms, has been proven in studies to reverse neural damage.
The effects have been known by researchers around the world, literally, for decades.
Steve Jobs said taking LSD was one of the most important things he ever did.
DNA was first decoded by a scientist(Frick) under the influence of LSD, and he claimed it vastly increased his power of concentration, etc.
And of course, the whole computer/internet revolution was deeply influenced by people using these drugs.
Trading healthy living for productivity is of course good for the company, but may not be good for the person. And the people who do it will just perpetuate that culture..,,
hmmmm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUngLgGRJpo
but how are any of these "related links", as billed at the bottom of the page?
Gunmen Kill 12, Wound 7 At French Magazine HQ
10 Confirmed Dead In Shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College
Los Angeles Raises Minimum Wage To $15 an Hour
How To Execute People In the 21st Century
Writer: "Why I Defaulted On My Student Loans"
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lsd+army
Some examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZIZtiWhnM8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CYPWny3FE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWodyapGNxI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLCzR34HfVQ
Some of my best friends are lampposts, you insensitive clod!
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
Where did this come from? It is not in any of the links, nor is it even implied in them.
Also, it is very far from the truth. There have been several studies which have shown that LSD and psilocybin can treat depression quite well, and they can even eliminate cluster headaches.