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The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- somat 8mo agoI have a theory that the renaissance and perhaps more critically the industrial revolution that followed was in a large part driven by coffee. Middle ages, things are a bit sleepy, dopey. Everybody is drinking beer all the time. progress runs at a slow pace. Then there is this popular new tea sweeping the scene and boy howdy does it get you up and going. Now people are waking up and doing things. Caffeine, It's a hell of a drug.
- allovertheworld 8mo agonah coffee really didn’t do much for me, i started drinking daily at 30
- iberator 8mo agoAns your parent's could? Maybe coffee improved their cognitive functions so u were born smart
- bairymr 8mo agoThere is some truth to this (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f111dq/til_that_when_coffee_arrived_from_arabia_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f111dq/til_...)
- scubadude 8mo agoI had wondered about the same for nicotine, being a neurostimulant.
- onionisafruit 8mo agoTurns out Otis Redding was singing about the renaissance in Cigarettes and Coffee
- edg5000 8mo agoYes, I've been thinking this as well. Although, earlier civilisations probably also consumed lots of stimulants; mayas, incas, probably countless more.
- medi8r 8mo agoIt gets you up and going until you build resistance then it becomes a need.
- flother 8mo agoYou’re in good company. Tom Standage makes the same argument in his book A History of the World in Six Glasses. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3872.A_History_of_the_World_in_6_Glasses https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3872.A_History_of_the_Wo...
- arjie 8mo agoNow the curious thing will be if people attribute the rapid pace of technological development in this new century to the advent of widespread amphetamine. A large number of Stanford students are on it, and likely many other top universities have similar properties.
- johnfn 8mo agoErdos famously took amphetamines his whole life, and they made him fabulously productive: > In 1979, Graham bet Erdös $500 that he couldn't stop taking amphetamines for a month. Erdös accepted the challenge, and went cold turkey for thirty days. After Graham paid up--and wrote the $500 off as a business expense--Erdös said, "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." He promptly resumed taking pills, and mathematics was the better for it. I think about this a lot. I drink a lot of coffee and I feel reasonably productive. But hey, maybe I should try something a bit stronger... :
- keiferski 8mo agoIt’s more accurate to say that the “modern era” (1600s and onwards, the Enlightenment , etc.) was boosted by coffee, because the Renaissance was larger over by the time the bean arrived from Arabia. Definitely a lot of modern ideas and institutions had their origins in coffee shops, though.
- dcminter 8mo ago> Definitely a lot of modern ideas and institutions had their origins in coffee shops, though. There are accounts of discussions between Robert Hooke, Edmund Halley, and Isaac Newton in a London coffee house. It's a wine bar now and not notably highbrow :)
- AlecSchueler 8mo agoLloyd's the insurance company was founded as a coffee house.
- brailsafe 8mo ago> I have a theory that the renaissance and perhaps more critically the industrial revolution that followed was in a large part driven by coffee. Don't forget the concentrated wealth created during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through the use and selling of slaves by the Portuguese between Africa and South America
- Fricken 8mo agoTo get the coffee and other things european men had to be sent out on ships to rape the world, and they would only do that if they were drunk. The Renaissance and the Industrial revolution were built on the spoils of exploitation, of which coffee was one.
- halper 8mo agoWonderfully written. If I have had too much caffeine I also look forward to the time when it burns off: "finally the tension on the harp strings eases, and one returns to the relaxed, meandering, simple-minded and cryptogamous life of the retired bourgeoisie."
- nobodyandproud 8mo agoWorth a read (5-10 minutes). I found myself agreeing more than disagreeing. That aside, some gems: “…Among certain weak natures, coffee produces only a kind of harmless congestion of the mind; instead of feeling animated, these people feel drowsy, and they say that coffee makes them sleep. Such individuals may have the legs of serfs and the stomachs of os- triches, but they are badly equipped for the work of thought.” “If the experience of the English is typical, heavy tea-drinking will produce English moral philosophy, a tendency toward a pale complexion, hypocrisy and backbiting.”
- scubadude 8mo ago> instead of feeling animated, these people feel drowsy, and they say that coffee makes them sleep Sounds like ADHD to me
- dakolli 8mo agoThis is such a BS lie sold by pharmaceutical companies, "stimulants are safe for your child, amphetamines will actually calm them down". There's a thing called fast caffeine metabolizers, and 50% of people have this genetic variation and perfectly explains why some people can nap after having caffeine, also tolerance. I digress, but you will never convince me otherwise, that the wide spread promotion of amphetamines in children/young adults is anything but an experiment of Empire. I attribute the somewhat significant economic edge US society has over the rest of the world is due to its addiction to amphetamines, and the ruling classes project to push them onto working class people to make them more effective workers. Its no different than how the Nazi's used amphetamines to simulate their population or how imperialist Japan did the same. Lets stop spreading this BS lie that stimulants calm people with ADHD down.
- antonvs 8mo agoThe well-documented scientific basis for the “calming” claim for ADHD medications is that by stimulating brain regions involved in attention, motivation, and regulation of behavior, it can reduce impulsivity and restlessness, giving the appearance of calming a person down if they have deficits in the latter areas. This has been shown to help many people (a large majority) with ADHD, and it’s also been shown to not provide general neurocognitive benefits to people without ADHD. IOW, the benefits come from improving attention and reducing impulsivity in people who have deficits in those areas. See e.g. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6165228/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6165228/ and then e.g. the three references it cites here: > “It is important to note that a robust body of literature exists that supports the positive effects of prescription stimulants on neurocognitive functioning in children and adults with ADHD (e.g., [14,54,55]), underscoring the importance of baseline impairments in performance relative to improved effects.” Reconciling this with your opinions on the matter is left as an exercise, but there’s some pretty clear and unambiguous science here.
- edg5000 8mo agoI love this, very fun writing
- ivansavz 8mo agoI really like this essay and I managed to track down the original in French, for anyone who reads French: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Trait%C3%A9_des_excitants_modernes https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Trait%C3%A9_des_excitants_mod... The part about coffee is halfway down the page under the heading §III — du café.
- isodev 8mo agoMerci :)
- lencastre 8mo agothis kind of intellectual insult is just not hurled anymore with as much precision and bite as in former times
- bryanrasmussen 8mo agoreminds me of "Memoir from Antproof Case" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoir_from_Antproof_Case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoir_from_Antproof_Case which wikipedia really does not describe well, as the plot really details the protagonist's life long war against coffee drinking, the following review handles that part better: https://web.archive.org/web/20121008201138/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/20/books/books-of-the-times-beware-the-first-sip-of-ol-demon-coffee.html https://web.archive.org/web/20121008201138/https://www.nytim...
- CrzyLngPwd 8mo agoI used to drink a lot of coffee, eventually settling on the SkullCrusher brand, which I loved, for my single coffee of the day; My morning coffee. One day, I decided that I would quit, and what followed was around 8 days of the worst headache I have had in a long time. Now, I wake full of energy and feeling sharp. The smell of coffee makes me want one, but the dullness and headache are good deterrents.
- nusl 8mo agoThe brand you chose for daily consumption advertises "3X MORE CAFFEINE - NEVER SLEEP AGAIN." In this instance I would honestly say that this choice of coffee, with so much caffeine, is a large contributor for why you had such a withdrawal. Your body probably ended up with a dependence to some degree because that's so much caffeine that it can't sorta just ignore it or manage around it. More moderate consumption is more tolerable and often doesn't produce the same negative effects after you stop, though for some people it still does. It's probably fine to have a coffee when you're craving it, couple times a week. Perhaps stick to a typical bean rather than nuclear-grade like you're used to? :P
- e1ghtSpace 8mo agoI quit too. I’ve since found on random days where I do have a coffee I feel slightly numb to everything so can procure more physical effort, but I slightly shake uncontrollably and also have worse sleeps. So I almost never have a coffee (or caffeine).
- princevegeta89 8mo agoSince no one has spoken about matcha yet, I am here to provide my two cents and my experience with caffeine and matcha. Caffeine does benefit people with certain forms of brain chemistry, and for folks like me, it definitely helps. I used to have double or triple espressos several times a day, and on other days, I would go for cold brews and similar drinks. I've spent years doing it. While it helped me immensely focus and get work done, it also put me on a fast track, I guess. It's probably not a good thing to keep going with. Somewhere it felt like it was putting extra mental load on me than usual. Again, this doesn't apply to everybody. Recently, I stumbled upon matcha. It's not the entry-level matcha or matcha mixed with a lot of additives like sugar or cream; it's just matcha with milk or an alternative milk like oat milk or almond milk, etc. It has a surprisingly nice effect. It's almost like the same effect as caffeine, but without making me feel jittery. At the same time, I'm also able to achieve the focus I used to get with coffee. I recommend that you folks start out and try it out and see if matcha helps you as well. Just make sure you buy ceremonial grade, which is available at a decent price on Amazon. It's ridiculously, crazily overpriced in stores like Safeway and Whole Foods, though. It is the L-theanine that works its magic in matcha. Too much can cause some nausea or diarrhea, but consuming it two or three times a day in moderate amounts can go a long way for many people. It also doesn't have any other side effects and is a good drink in general. Beyond that, there are other alternatives like chamomile tea, passionflower tea, etc. Some of them work for some people, while others don’t. It's up to you to keep trying and cycling between these wonderful gifts that nature has provided.
- keiferski 8mo agoThis seems like it was influenced by 1821’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, which is a very interesting read, far more than you’d probably assume. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_English_Opium-Eater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_English_Opiu...
- devcraft_ai 8mo ago[flagged]
- internet_points 8mo agoFun read :) Balzac has been on my reading list for some time, I see a lot are on https://standardebooks.org/ebooks?query=balzac&sort=default&view=grid&per-page=12 https://standardebooks.org/ebooks?query=balzac&sort=default&... – anyone have a recommendation for first Balzac book?
- puttycat 8mo agoIf you suffer from any kind of anxiety, and you drink caffeine, you should seriously consider quitting. Even if you only drink as little as one coffee per day. There's a very high chance that caffeine is the source of a large part of it. I've been drinking coffee for 20 years and had always assumed that I was just an anxious, paranoid person. Quitting made me realize that I really wasn't. Quitting/reducing has also cured my itchy skin problem. I also highly recommend the subreddit r/decaf as a great source of information.
- keybored 8mo agoThat’s interesting. I can be irritable. Not really that anxious. Saving for later.
- reverendjames 8mo agoBeta.
- monkeydust 8mo agoI was recently asked, unexpectedly, what would I do if AI took my job. The first thing that came to mind was to become a coffee grower, farmer, producer or something with coffee. Now I cant shake that thought!
- anon84873628 8mo agoIt's an idyllic dream, as long as you don't need to make money! No one who touches beans makes money. Only the largest multinational traders and cafes. The money from the specialty coffee chain goes to landlords, shipping companies, and equipment manufacturers. Of course you'll need to live in the tropics too. For learning about coffee production, the podcast "Making Coffees" by Lucia Solis is excellent (and industry award winning).
- anon84873628 8mo agoWhy the hell does "download pdf" give you a single page?
- gausswho 8mo ago(Flipped to the page after and found a lovely ditty about tea): There is a trickling, a grating, a stutter of cinders or light. It catches my lungs, a breath of cinnamon. I cough, as though I have swallowed coffee grounds. The tea bag blessed with warm water lies there glistening like birdseed in gauze in the colorless round of the pond. It was as if someone had dropped a stone in a pond, how your pupils used to expand. Or did the irises shrink and expand, much as the flaming ring on the stove does when I turn it down, then up? Memory (I have poured the tea) blows on her hands. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mqrarchive/act2080.0035.002/15?page=root;size=100;view=image https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mqrarchive/act2080.0035.002/15?...