7 ms·
How and Why Silicon Valley Gets High
- mrarjen 8y agoThis is a rather flat article that doesn't go into the whole thing properly. And it has a rather anti drugs hint to it, if anyone wants to know some more about drugs from users/expert, who have a normal constructive conversation, i'd recommend this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8WDZIhs3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8WDZIhs3M
- rwnspace 8y agoAgreed, I was hoping for something a bit more substantive. The following podcast episode with Cole Marta is what turned me on to learning more about research into Ketamine and MDMA. http://www.duncantrussell.com/episodes/2016/9/14/dr-cole-marta http://www.duncantrussell.com/episodes/2016/9/14/dr-cole-mar...
- mrarjen 8y agoThanks for sharing, I'll look into this one as well. And researching these drugs is rather interesting, there has only been very limited papers due to bans on active substances. Also channels like: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRQKXtIGcK1yEnQ4Te8hWQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRQKXtIGcK1yEnQ4Te8hWQ are interesting to see people take these substances, but still everyone can have different effects from the same thing.
- mirimir 8y agoThis is a totally ridiculous article. > That is why everyone he knows microdoses, saving the longer-acting drugs like Ecstasy for the rare occasions when they want to party and relax. I presume that "microdoses" means LSD, but who knows. MDMA is not per se longer-acting than LSD or Psilocybe spp.
- TheCoelacanth 8y agoDoesn't LSD last like 2x as long as MDMA?
- bfuller 8y agothe peak of MDMA is more like 1.5 hrs. A good lsd dose will have you peaking for 6 hours.
- mirimir 8y agoThey're so different that's it's very hard to say. The LSD peak lasts 2-6 hours, depending on the dose. Effects trail off gradually after that. Marijuana intensifies them dramatically, however, and produces something like a secondary peak. And short-term memory gets totally nuked, which can be very frightening. So I don't recommend that, unless you have an experienced friend around. Anyway, I've never stayed awake long enough (without redosing or taking some other drug) to tell when LSD effects become imperceptible. Effects are pretty much gone after 6-8 hours sleep. But the next day, or even the next week or two, you can clearly feel some effect. There's also transient tolerance. I don't have much experience with MDMA. I was never very impressed with the visuals. I liked the body vibes, albeit too much like amphetamines. It's great for dancing and intimate sex, as everyone knows. And yes, the effects don't last for more than several hours, unless you take a lot and/or redose.
- Osmanthus 8y agoThe American obsession with drugs is beyond me, one would assume sane people should take as less drug as they can, apparently that's not the case for Murican. I've heard that US kids would take "smart drugs" to boost their academic performance, if true, that's kind of fucked up. Let's see what pot will do to Murica in 10 years.
- steve_musk 8y agoWe’ve been smoking bud in Murica for longer than 10 years ;)
- Osmanthus 8y agoI've seen more and more harrowing reports about American addiction crysis in the past several years, do you think that has or will have little to do with pot?
- pm90 8y agoYes it has very little to do with pot. The crisis is of opioids: painkillers prescribed by doctors a little too easily, and scores of people get addicted to these substances.
- habeebtc 8y agoNot just that--a family of opioids which never should have been approved for general use by the FDA. It's well documented, the shenanigans that the drug companies used to get these drugs approved, and to get doctors proscribing them for everything.
- saiya-jin 8y agoMany parts of the world are using some variation of uppers, downers, screamers or laughers. Weed has been sacred in indian subcontinent for millennia and is part of their religion (ie Shiva day). Coca is sacred plant for all altiplano population in South America. Mushrooms for Siberian population. Mescaline cactus for Central America. Ayahusca in amazon. And so on. Update your history knowledge.
- tootahe45 8y agoMust be make sh*t up day.
- fmajid 8y agoI've never done drugs or even tobacco, but Steve Jobs claimed dropping acid changes your perspective on reality and was a big factor in his success. That gives me pause.
- GGfpc 8y agoIt can also trigger undiagnosed mental conditions like schizophrenia.
- m_fayer 8y agoI would think it's self-evident that chemically (forcibly) modifying your perspective and the timbre of your subjective/emotional experience, a change that without chemical assistance would be slow, difficult to achieve, and often impossible, would not be entirely safe. But, safety isn't everything.
- jdavis703 8y agoAnd speaking from personal experience, so can stressful activities like child birth. The human mind is complex, the best we can hope for is better educating people about mental health.
- acct1771 8y agoSounds like a diagnosis to me.
- hycaria 8y agoAcid felt like a circle jerk with myself to be quite honest.
- acct1771 8y agoCoincidentally, that sounds exactly like the drug Steve Jobs would enjoy!
- saiya-jin 8y agoIt's extremely powerful experience, you simply can't get anything similar in any other way. Your whole concept of reality will be blown away, even physical aspects of your existence disappear (like your body and most senses we take for granted). hard to describe with mere words. Will you realize some hidden truth about the nature of the universe? Most probably not. Will it teach you something about yourself and your mind? Most definitely yes. Can this change you forever? Of course it can, and many it will. Can this trigger any dormant mental disease? Absolutely. Any profoundly shocking experience can, even binge drinking - met one person who ended up on lifelong schizophrenia treatment because of alcohol.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- quackerhacker 8y agoAs a coder, the only real drug I’ve ever really needed has been caffeine. This didn’t start until recently so I’m not sure if I can attribute it to age (early 30’s). My real dependence on caffeine is mainly due to staying up too late the night before (like right now, about 0200 here) and needing to get up and function with 5hrs of sleep and maintain my mental acuity for the workload I have. To give you an idea of my caffeine intake...about 2 venti black coffees and an 8oz Red Bull.
- zaarn 8y agoYou can replace the Red Bull with another black coffee and a glass of orange juice, the effective contents are the same. I also absolutely do recommend to drink an acidic juice in the morning before any coffee, it brightens up the day significantly.
- mercer 8y ago> I also absolutely do recommend to drink an acidic juice in the morning before any coffee, it brightens up the day significantly. Could you elaborate on that?
- zaarn 8y agoI find that acidic juices such as Orange or Ananas juice cleans out most of the gunk that builds up overnight and gives you a short boost through the sugar in them. The sugar can usually cover until the coffee after begins to work so you don't get that period of slouch after drinking coffee before it works (drinking something warm tends to make drowsy too so you possibly get more tired after drinking coffee). Skipping/preventing this short moment of weakness improves on the day a lot.
- mercer 8y agowould adding sugar to the coffee have the same effect?
- dhnsmakala 8y agoNot that many people take drugs in Silicon Valley...at least not most devs I know.
- Simulacra 8y agoI use to take adderall until I discovered its a false prophet and hurts way more than it helps. Marijuana would help calm my brain after a busy day of coding, but as I get older I'm looking for more ways to do better without the drugs.
- stinos 8y agoNo one does a stupid tweet on weed like they might on alcohol,” he said. “The most that happens is that you get lazy and eat badly.” Is just one sentence illustrating the general lack of depth in this article. Already starting with the reporter, seemingly never having tried any of the mentioned drugs, rejecting the possible effects they could have on beforehand and without first-hand experience. Erm, is this reporting? Also, just cherry-picking here as other commenters are already pointing out other mistakes, but with respect to weed: saying the most that happens is 'get lazy and eat badly' is so extremely misguided I can hardly believe anyone says that. The most that happens to me is close to a full trip on mushrooms for instance, thoughts going everywhere, creativity all over the place, extremely detailed self-reflection, sometimes profound dissociation, including visual and auditory hallucinations. Granted that depends on dosage, circumstances, tolerance, way of administration, but it does show that the 'just weed' sentiment needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
- zone411 8y agoI believe the tech executive quoted meant it in the sense "the worst that happens."
- stinos 8y agoAh, that's certainly possible. But then one could still argue there's definitely worse experiences than just being lazy on weed though, depending on the definition of 'bad' in this case.
- caboteria 8y agoI agree that the piece is pretty vapid, but it's clearly labelled as an opinion piece so it's explicitly not reporting.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- stinos 8y agoFair point, but in the first sentence the writer uses the word reporter when referring to herself so I kinda missed the opinion thing.
- Dowwie 8y agoEveryone isn't microdosing. You're not missing out. This article doesn't belong in the NYTimes.
- bfuller 8y agoOf course people microdosing are a minority. But that doesnt mean you are not missing out. LSD should be used as a last resort for people with treatment resistant adhd/depression, but it can be a total miracle drug. I wonder why you are so quick to bash a drug that is increasingly being shown to be effective.
- acct1771 8y agoOr, you weren't sure who the NYT were.
- Symmetry 8y agoGwern did a blind experiment with microdosing and didn't find any effects. https://www.gwern.net/LSD-microdosing https://www.gwern.net/LSD-microdosing
- someguy101010 8y agohttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01965761 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01965761 Roland Fischer did an experiment in the 70s and found that students on lsd were able to identify parallel lines more accurately. Iirc in gwerns experiment he dosed every day, and lsd tolerance builds pretty fast.