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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.
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?
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
How we got the Internet of Things.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
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
Have you ever tried LSD? The effect is somewhat different from what you think, possibly; a major component is that it works like speed, to some extent, and it keeps going for ~8 hours. I'm not sure how much work I would be able to do in that state, but I know some people can (John Lennon famously did at least for a while). I've only ever taken large doses, but even then you don't simply disappear into a wild maelstrom of hallucinations - it is more controllable than that. But you do get inspirations and ideas pouring into your mind all the time - I got tired of it in the end.
Agreed - self-reported results have little credibility (see homeopathy), and those of psychoactive substance use are particularly suspect.
And neither productivity nor creativity gains, even if real, are worth much unless accompanied by good judgement.
That is what all studies with drugs have found, that I have looked at. Alcohol does not actually make you a better driver, nor you objectively more handsome, it just impairs your judgement of these things.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
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.
Same with ethanol. Nothing is more annoying than walking into a party where people have been drinking. It usually takes me a couple drinks before they stop being asshats.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
ive tried just about everything that grows on plants, ive done lsd a few times before and for the past few years ive basically been tripping twice a year because i like it. My honest opinion? i highly doubt this works as advertised for the exact same reason you give. Furthermore, most people that i know who do lsd more often keep having "genius" ideas that have absolutely no real world application or practical value, the times i did lsd i kept having grand ideas aswell that just dont look as good once you sober up.
Theres probably some people here and there that this would work for, but i highly doubt its something most people should even wonder about... perhaps "microdose" helps because its not that much. but as someone who actually does drugs.. i have my doubts id sure as hell never want to try it at work
Technically, what they say is interesting to themselves. They've just stopped caring whether anyone else thinks the same.
Not trying to get anyone here to develop a habit, but it always seemed to me that cocaine is a drug that would help shy and anxious people and would turn already confident people into overconfident assholes. Sort of like alcohol, I guess.
Comparing recreational doses of cocaine to microdoses of LSD is an apples-to-oranges comparison though. Cocaine is a stimulant; LSD is a hallucinogen; it would make more sense to compare it to marijuana, although all these drugs have radically different (and very complex) mechanisms of action. Because we call them all "illegal drugs" doesn't mean they're the same thing or act the same way. Even the same drug at different dosages can have dramatically different effects.
It's very plausible that microdoses of LSD produce illusory creativity, since many drugs do indeed undermine self-perception -- not that that tends to be very reliable in humans anyway. But drugs are unlikely in my opinion to be a substitute for struggle in the creative process. Creativity has two components: novelty and appropriateness. Drugs are an easy way to get to novelty, but when it comes to judging appropriateness there's no substitute for plain, naked struggle with the obvious but inadequate approaches to a problem. Only then, after you've been forced to gain a deep and intimate connection to the problem's constraints, can some kind of flash of insight do you any good. Until you've struggled with a problem your insights are worthless, whether or not they come to you in a flash.
So it's essentially inconceivable that any drug could make you creative. However it seems plausible that some drugs could act as a kind of adjuvant to creative struggle when you're approaching a creative breakthrough. Such breakthroughs often come at a time when you're critical faculties are slightly deranged; when you're exhausted; dropping off to sleep; or just say "screw it for now" and do something unrelated.
Note that "plausible" isn't the same as "probable", much less "likely". The problem with information with drugs is that it's almost always slanted one way or the other. For example I think MDMA has a lot of potential to alleviate suffering, however research on it has been restricted by the fear that if it proves useful then controlling its recreational use will become harder. On the other hand I wouldn't take the word of recreational users and dealers unquestioningly either; I can easily find people who swear by homeopathy. There's a distinct lack of objectivity and reliability in information about recreational drugs.
The "good" news, I think, is that there's no substitute for creative struggle; and I think you can mentally train yourself to make that leap of intuition once struggle has prepared you.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Amphetamine can make you cleverer if you do not abuse them. Look at Paul Erdos
I don't remember being drunk and unable to function for 16 hours after a pint of beer.
Then look at the countless number of people who have had their lives wrecked by it and not only those who were taking it. Long distance truckers on Amphetamine have had many accidents where they've killed some poor bastard in their car who was unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of the truck driver on speed.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
His post was saying "don't trust a drug user, get some real data." Seems reasonable. Recreational drug users always espouse the benefits of their drugs. If they didn't believe, they wouldn't use them.
I have been on the other LSD.
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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We could take a break when we hit a creative block.
Take that crap with you to Canada, you Commie.
Breakfast served all day!
This phenomenon has a name: The Ballmer Peak
FTFY.
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
I was thinking that this explains a lot of the daft UI design we've seen recently.
Here's my anecdote: Many interesting ideas I had back in the day came to me under the influence of pot. Some of those ideas brought me a great deal of money.
I never said this doesn't happen, but your reasoning is post hoc ergo propter hoc: your ideas came to you while you were stoned, therefore they must have come from the pot. In order to conclude that you'd have to have done all of your thinking about the problems while you were stoned.
As I said, I think it quite plausible that drugs can, at the right time, help you escape the limitations of self-censorship in your thinking. But in my experience people who are stoned all the time certainly have novel ideas, but those ideas aren't particularly useful. That's because creativity actually involves a kind of interplay of critical and imaginative thinking. Enough people have anecdotes like yours to think there's something to it, but the very nature of creativity -- at least as I'm defining it -- makes me doubt you can get it entirely out of a bottle.
For the record, I consider creativity the finding of novel approaches to a thing that are better in some way than pre-existing approaches. This almost certainly presupposes an intimate familiarity with pre-existing approaches, unless we count pure dumb luck as creativity. Picasso, for example, didn't draw the way he did because he couldn't to realistic work. He had very good drawing skills, and his early works were representational. That level of draftsmanship doesn't come without struggle; and from that he derived his interest in geometric figures, most easily seen in the development of his landscapes. Note if "House in the Field" seems a bit crude, it was painted when he was twelve years old.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
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.
Please do not confuse taking a ten strip at Burning Man as being analogous with a true ++++ on the Shulgin Scale. Once you start pushing above 1mg, weird shit does happen. The dosage I just gave was NOT a misprint, puddles and prints will go 1 or 2 orders of magnitude beyond that. It's one thing to climb a mountain, another to stand on the plateau at the top and an entirely different experience when you jump off the cliff into the maw of eternity. Don't take my word for it, get on the bus and ask any knowledgeable member of the Family.
But my goal isn't to diminish your experience... our job is to shed light and not to master. The idea that a threshold dose is preferable is bit absurd though. Once could easily have ++ or a +/- from the exact same dose at different times. Each experience is unique unto itself and some times is independent of dosage. I've learned by personal experience that a low dose trip can produce a negative feedback loop into a bad trip easier that a large dose. Probably because I flirted with and fixated on the illusion of control versus just surrendering to the experience.
"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right!"
That explains a lot about the recent trends in UIs...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The gov't puts LSD in the water, just so people will stay in Minnesota.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!