6 ms·

Author is missing the forest for the trees. Risk-takers, innovators, short-cut-seekers, I'm-smarter-than-you's, I-can-out-hustle-you's, I-need-adventure-not-sa

by corry 3y ago

Author is missing the forest for the trees. Risk-takers, innovators, short-cut-seekers, I'm-smarter-than-you's, I-can-out-hustle-you's, I-need-adventure-not-safey's, drop-out-of-school-to-code's etc are all going to be more likely to experiment with mind-expanding substances than the general population. They are also more likely to start companies, perhaps with wild ambitions. VCs are the pattern-matching mimics of the ecosystem, so who cares what they do - they are clearly just following the trend that is set out by the founders. How is it surprising, then, that startup hotspots have higher use of psychedelics (especially against the backdrop of a giant revival of psychedelic use)? Isn't it exactly what one would suspect?

redleggedfrog 3y ago
"Risk-takers, innovators, short-cut-seekers, I'm-smarter-than-you's, I-can-out-hustle-you's, I-need-adventure-not-safey's, drop-out-of-school-to-code's etc are all going to be more likely to experiment with mind-expanding substances than the general population." You forgot criminals, which those in the list above often become.
- slt2021 3y ago
  > criminals You misspelled "Forbes 30 Under 30" https://www.bu.edu/rbfl/2023/05/17/30-under-30-pipeline-to-prison/ https://www.bu.edu/rbfl/2023/05/17/30-under-30-pipeline-to-p...
- mantas 3y ago
  Why not both startup founders and criminals? There're plenty examples...
- corry 3y ago
  Sure, it's the same general personality motif - lack of risk-aversion and perhaps lack of respect for authority. Or are you making the more subtle point that, currently, any use of psychedelics outside of an approved study makes one "a criminal"?
michaelt 3y ago
> How is it surprising, then, that startup hotspots have higher use of psychedelics Well, some people think programming is a profession dominated by 'geeks' and that 'geeks' are uptight squares who don't much like to party. Or to the extent they do party, it's conservative stuff like playing video games until 2am while drinking beer. In college, the people putting on rager parties with open drug use, noise complaints and people jumping over a spontaneously started bonfire? All organised by people studying things like film.
austin-cheney 3y ago
Your sentiment confuses a couple of things. 1. "Openness" is the personality trait of the 5 factor model most closely associated with drug use. Openness also most closely correlates to intelligence amount the 5 factors. Those are coincidental factors not suggesting more intelligent people favor drug use disproportionately. 2. Risk taking behavior, or more precisely actions benefiting from exceptionally low neuroticism, is not a personality facet. Its a result of faster than normal gamma-globulin uptake in the amygdala. Such people do not associate a fear response to stimulus associated decision criteria and as such prioritize things differently. These people tend to have a very low incidence of drug use because they are less capable of feeling thrills and fears.
- ianbutler 3y ago
  > These people tend to have a very low incidence of drug use because they are less capable of feeling thrills and fears. So your entire reply is super interesting first off. Wouldn't this be somewhat moot as the same people would also be the type of people looking for an edge, not a thrill?
  - austin-cheney 3y ago
    The super risk takers, the kind of people who are willing to walk into a burning house or enter a combat fire fight, at first appear incredibly reckless, possibly suicidal. Its normal to think that because their behavior dramatically differs from how normal people perceive and interact with the world. Instead those people simply lack a certain form of emotionally regulated fear as a stress response. That difference can occur from extensive training and conditioning, but in more extreme yet casual cases its something a person is born with. Their bodies still tense up, they still produce adrenaline, and their pulse still shoots up like everybody else so they are reacting to stress with a stress response like normal people. The difference is that their inhibition due to that fear is more rapidly eliminated by a neurotransmitter. That allows two things that normal people don't realize occurs: 1) The high risk behavior is primarily a means of learning to interface with the world in a new way. 2) The resulting high risk action is often the result of a rational risk calculation in a snap moment, similar but opposite of panic. The edge, if any, comes from proving something or eliminating a consequence other people aren't willing to attempt. The consequence though, is that even if such people are able to realize and prove this edge most people will not be willing to accept it.

by corry 3y ago

redleggedfrog 3y ago

"Risk-takers, innovators, short-cut-seekers, I'm-smarter-than-you's, I-can-out-hustle-you's, I-need-adventure-not-safey's, drop-out-of-school-to-code's etc are all going to be more likely to experiment with mind-expanding substances than the general population." You forgot criminals, which those in the list above often become.

slt2021 3y ago
> criminals You misspelled "Forbes 30 Under 30" https://www.bu.edu/rbfl/2023/05/17/30-under-30-pipeline-to-prison/ https://www.bu.edu/rbfl/2023/05/17/30-under-30-pipeline-to-p...
mantas 3y ago
Why not both startup founders and criminals? There're plenty examples...
corry 3y ago
Sure, it's the same general personality motif - lack of risk-aversion and perhaps lack of respect for authority. Or are you making the more subtle point that, currently, any use of psychedelics outside of an approved study makes one "a criminal"?

michaelt 3y ago

> How is it surprising, then, that startup hotspots have higher use of psychedelics Well, some people think programming is a profession dominated by 'geeks' and that 'geeks' are uptight squares who don't much like to party. Or to the extent they do party, it's conservative stuff like playing video games until 2am while drinking beer. In college, the people putting on rager parties with open drug use, noise complaints and people jumping over a spontaneously started bonfire? All organised by people studying things like film.

austin-cheney 3y ago

Your sentiment confuses a couple of things. 1. "Openness" is the personality trait of the 5 factor model most closely associated with drug use. Openness also most closely correlates to intelligence amount the 5 factors. Those are coincidental factors not suggesting more intelligent people favor drug use disproportionately. 2. Risk taking behavior, or more precisely actions benefiting from exceptionally low neuroticism, is not a personality facet. Its a result of faster than normal gamma-globulin uptake in the amygdala. Such people do not associate a fear response to stimulus associated decision criteria and as such prioritize things differently. These people tend to have a very low incidence of drug use because they are less capable of feeling thrills and fears.

ianbutler 3y ago
> These people tend to have a very low incidence of drug use because they are less capable of feeling thrills and fears. So your entire reply is super interesting first off. Wouldn't this be somewhat moot as the same people would also be the type of people looking for an edge, not a thrill?
- austin-cheney 3y ago
  The super risk takers, the kind of people who are willing to walk into a burning house or enter a combat fire fight, at first appear incredibly reckless, possibly suicidal. Its normal to think that because their behavior dramatically differs from how normal people perceive and interact with the world. Instead those people simply lack a certain form of emotionally regulated fear as a stress response. That difference can occur from extensive training and conditioning, but in more extreme yet casual cases its something a person is born with. Their bodies still tense up, they still produce adrenaline, and their pulse still shoots up like everybody else so they are reacting to stress with a stress response like normal people. The difference is that their inhibition due to that fear is more rapidly eliminated by a neurotransmitter. That allows two things that normal people don't realize occurs: 1) The high risk behavior is primarily a means of learning to interface with the world in a new way. 2) The resulting high risk action is often the result of a rational risk calculation in a snap moment, similar but opposite of panic. The edge, if any, comes from proving something or eliminating a consequence other people aren't willing to attempt. The consequence though, is that even if such people are able to realize and prove this edge most people will not be willing to accept it.