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Antidepressants or Tolkien
- speed_spread 3y agoWhy not both? Speedrun the damned ring back to fucking Mordor. Up yours, Sauron!
- leed25d 3y agoEnigma
- isoprophlex 3y agoI never knew sildenafil (marketed as viagra) acted as an antidepressant too, lol
- rconti 3y agoYep that was the first one i slapped my forehead at missing, because I actually knew what it was but figured it must ALSO be a tolkien character since I was sure it wasn't an antidepressant.
- mjfl 3y agoNow I'm thinking of an elf named Sildenafil.
- elmerfud 3y agoIt's a curious link that they made. Many antidepressants can cause performance issues, which can be a big deal for a lot of people. Using sildenafil with it can restore that part of the vitality.
- jonny_eh 3y ago> Antidepressant-like activity of sildenafil following acute and subchronic treatment in the forced swim test in mice: effects of restraint stress and monoamine depletion https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5031750/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5031750/
- davikr 3y agoIt is definitely not used for depression in humans, though.
- cl0ckt0wer 3y agoCledíal got me
- munchler 3y agoMe too, although it's actually "Clédial". I was certain no one would market a drug with an accented character in the US.
- frutiger 3y agoIf you’ve read The Silmarillion it’s not too difficult, as Elvish names have common construction patterns and sounds.
- hdhdhegdv 3y agoWtf I got sildenafil which isn’t an antidepressant or tolkien
- redox99 3y agoFunny you got flagged by what I assume is a viagra spam bot check.
- bigmattystyles 3y agoReminds me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPx_X3DjXy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPx_X3DjXy8
- edgarvaldes 3y agoLike that classic Pokemon or Big Data
- dividendpayee 3y agoDid anyone do worse than me? I got 11/24 :S
- rconti 3y ago10/24. Wow. You'd think it would be hard to do worse than a coin flip. On the other hand, I guess many coin flip sets are going to end up "worse than a coin flip" :D
- diarrhea 3y agoJust shy of 50% of coin flips will be worse than a coin flip.
- AdamJacobMuller 3y agoI felt bad about getting 12/24 which is basically "randomly guessing," somehow you did worse than random :D
- missedthecue 3y ago10/24 It got to the point that I was saying "ok this one has to be a trap"
- officehero 3y agoRead most of Tolkien's books as audiobooks and this is certainly an area where audio is a much worse medium than paper. You just don't get any bells ringing from the looks of words.
- PlunderBunny 3y agoThe wonderful McSweeney's Internet Tendency [0] has a lot of this type of humour. 1. https://www.mcsweeneys.net https://www.mcsweeneys.net
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago(2020) From it's previous home on https://antidepressantsortolkien.now.sh/ https://antidepressantsortolkien.now.sh/
- saghm 3y agoTwo of my favorites of this genre are "Ikea Furniture or Metal Band" and "Drug or Pokemon". I did terribly at the first one since I don't know enough metal I guess, but I aced the latter, despite realizing that "Remoraid" actually does sound more like some sort of join pain cream or something than a pokemon.
- crypto29 3y agoLet's not forget one of the first in the genre - "Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer" https://vole.wtf/coder-serial-killer-quiz/ https://vole.wtf/coder-serial-killer-quiz/
- tkgally 3y agoExcellent! The first one I remember seeing—and enjoying—was “Prof or Hobo”: https://www.proforhobo.com/ https://www.proforhobo.com/
- ekianjo 3y agoNot really insightful since you only have pictures to guess. You can make any murderer look nice and friendly with the right picture
- MalcolmDwyer 3y agoMy favorite was "North Korean propaganda or TED talk soundbite?" There are a few articles about it but the actual quiz doesn't seem to be up anymore.
- pigeons 3y agoI failed Filesystem Driver Author or Murderer".
- modeless 3y agoThe first one I saw, and still my favorite, was "Pokemon or Big Data" https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRsfRHXPTuEXdNvUcI8DzJIU5iazqlpksWucPF0d8l2ztkkA/viewform https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRsfRHXPTuEXdNvUcI...
- trs83 3y agoThis is beautiful.
- blooalien 3y agoI'm really surprised at what a challenge that turned out to be. I was certain I was gonna have no problems distinguishing drugs from Tolkien characters, but I only got 15/24 in the end. Recognized a few obvious brand names and characters, but half the time I had to resort to straight-up guessing. Some of those drug names totally sound like Tolkien characters.
- blooalien 3y agoHey, thanks to everyone who responded to this comment with interesting and educational tidbits. That's the sort of stuff I very much appreciate about HackerNews. Can always count on finding new and interesting knowledge to explore here.
- steve_adams_86 3y agoYeah, wow. It’s been years since I read and watched, but I expected this to be challenging for the uninitiated. That crushed me. I guess I just lost a bunch of nerd cred. It’s bizarre that I did about as well at getting drug names correct, and I can’t say I’m well versed in those.
- jltsiren 3y agoNone of the drug names sounded like Tolkien characters to me. I guess native English speakers are at a disadvantage, because they are more likely to consider the names as they would be pronounced in English. The intended pronunciation is usually close to Classical Latin, which means that pronouncing the names in any other European language is likely closer to the truth. And when you pronounce the names in that language, Tolkien characters and drugs tend to sound different.
- sspiff 3y agoI'm European and I studied Latin for 6 years in high school and yet I found the test very challenging.
- dawatchusay 3y agoSo you were 100% correct on the test?
- rossdavidh 3y ago21/24, and I have to say that there were a lot more tough calls than I expected. One wonders if reading JRRT's works has been tested as an antidepressant. I think "Farmer Giles of Ham" was pretty upbeat...
- geuis 3y ago23 of 24. Missed the last one due to a miss click. (I've read the Silmarillion too much it seems.)
- gymbeaux 3y agoSo 24/24
- d0odk 3y agoNardil is unfair
- stargazer-3 3y agoYes, Nárdil (or Nárndil?) could've been a Tolkien name meaning fire friend in Quenya.
- d0odk 3y agoImpressive you know that. I simply confused it with the sword, Narsil. I just considered that close enough to be unfair haha
- g-b-r 3y agoHow not finishing the Silmarillion comes back to bite you
- vaxintar 3y ago23/24 but there was a few I just got lucky, Clédial got me because I didn't expect a drug to have an accent.
- nindalf 3y ago21/24. I’ll atone by re-reading now.
- TOGoS 3y agoHaving recently listened to the Lord of the Rings audiobooks (the read by Andy Serkis ones) I thought this was going to be about escaping into fantasy novels as a way of keeping oneself sane without having to resort to drugs. I also found them to be one of the only effective means of occupying my mind as I was trying to fall asleep so that I didn't ruminate myself into insomnia, which of course would leave me in a worse mood the next day.
- afarviral 3y agoIf you got a good score, was it due to drug or tolkien knowledge? Or evenly both?
- CodeMage 3y agoTolkien, in my case. In fact, I was a bit bummed out that I got 23/24.
- throwanem 3y agoSildenafil isn't an antidepressant.
- ivraatiems 3y agoFor anyone who is looking for information on the different kinds of antidepressants mentioned in this game (which I failed most completely despite being broadly familiar), here is a great article from Dr. Scott Siskind (aka Scott Alexander of SlateStarCodex/AstralCodexTen): https://lorienpsych.com/2021/06/05/depression/ https://lorienpsych.com/2021/06/05/depression/ I am not a huge fan of Siskind on all things but he has a great ability to explain complex topics simply when he is an expert, and he is on this.
- whalesalad 3y agoI’ve often wondered - who are the Madison Avenue don Draper crews of the prescription drug world? How do they all create these terrible names, and terrible commercials around them? There’s clearly some consistency and yet it’s all insane.
- second_brekkie 3y ago21/24 That was fun, also surprised by the difficulty. Kept slipping up on the less known Gondorian kings. Also if your a filthy casual like me and cba to re-read the Silmarilion, Nerd of the Rings is a, solid YT channel. https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCW0gH2G-cMKAEjEkI4YhnPA https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCW0gH2G-cMKAEjEkI4YhnPA
- xenophon 3y agoAnother classic of this genre, brought to you by McSweeney's: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/armed-band-of-thugs-or-minor-star-wars-character https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/armed-band-of-thugs-or-m...
- asimpleusecase 3y ago20 out of 24 not too bad.
- xivzgrev 3y ago18/24 - at some point there was a certain pattern to the medications. But then it broke and I got 4 in a row wrong
- erickhill 3y agoReminds me of the classic Sporcle quiz: "Drug or Pokemon?" https://www.sporcle.com/games/LinkinMarc/drug_or_pokemon https://www.sporcle.com/games/LinkinMarc/drug_or_pokemon (and just as baffling)
- lIl-IIIl 3y agoFrom the tweet that inspired this game: "Three rings to block reuptake of neurotransmitters And to the post-synaptic receptor bind them."
- Obscurity4340 3y agoHow is Sildenafil (Viagra) an antidepressant? Never mind, don't answer that
- Perceval 3y agoI don't think it's an antidepressant, but it does increase testosterone, and that can improve mood: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24106072/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24106072/
- Obscurity4340 3y agoAmazing how all the misguided folks who villainize gender-affirming care have zero problem with themselves being able to receive it and also pump up their testosterone...
- Perceval 3y agoI just want equal opportunity to take testosterone to transition from male to alpha male.
- Obscurity4340 3y agoIts always "if I want or need it, its exceptional/different". Only my abortion is moral
- Obscurity4340 3y agoI guess I didn't consider the "Five-Star Man defense" lol
- bebop404 3y ago15/24, so only slightly better than a coin flip. The names with tildes in them were giveaways, though.
- piersolenski 3y agoReminds me of https://mariahormessiah.fun/ https://mariahormessiah.fun/