4 ms·

Well, I'm still waiting for the fellowship of LSD-fueled Übermenschen to emerge. Until then I'll just try to eat well, exercise more and get enough sleep. That

by xefer 12y ago

Well, I'm still waiting for the fellowship of LSD-fueled Übermenschen to emerge. Until then I'll just try to eat well, exercise more and get enough sleep. That seems to be the key for most elite developers I've encountered.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
b6 12y ago
Hmm. Maintaining your health in the standard ways is really good. Please keep it up. I'll try, too. But it bothers me a little bit when you seem put it as if LSD fails at being some kind of neo-caffeine that makes people smarter, more productive, etc. It really does fail to do that. But that's not how it helps. It's not necessarily that it gives you the answers to the questions you're asking -- it's more like it helps you get perspective and perhaps realize you could be asking better questions. To me it's as if we typically get kind of tunnel vision of the mind. Imagine if, for a few hours, you could zoom out from your current vantage point, see it compressed, as if from a great height, or maybe at high speed, and suddenly it's much easier to see structures that were much too big/subtle/slow to appreciate before. Or you at least get an inkling that such things exist and that you might want to look for them. It's very frustrating to evangelize LSD sometimes because it probably will not help you in the ways you care about right now. But it very well may help you in ways you literally cannot understand right now.
- droopyEyelids 12y ago
  I'll take a step back even from your more modest assessment, and say that well-rounded people are better at programming (among other things) and an LSD experience can add a bit of roundedness to someone who already pushes their comfort zone-- and thats the real extent of LSD's benefit. Just another way to step outside yourself, with all the limited benefit and risk that entails.
Iv 12y ago
You are unlikely to see them go public while it is forbidden to do so, but the list of people who used LSD includes some pretty interesting people. Personally I run on sleep and quietness, but I think I would be able to put cannabis to good use when it becomes legal where I live. I have found that small quantities allow for a greater concentration on the condition that you refrain smoking to much and not drink any alcohol.
- Ollinson 12y ago
  >the list of people who used LSD includes some pretty interesting people. This is the definition of survivorship bias.
  - Iv 12y ago
    "There have been no documented human deaths from an LSD overdose.[51] It is physiologically well tolerated and there is no evidence for long-lasting physiological effects on the brain or other parts of the human organism.[52]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Potential_adverse_effects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Pote...
    - Ollinson 12y ago
      I think you misunderstand. Survivorship bias in this context means we do not know all of the people who did LSD that did not go on to do anything significant. Therefore it is pointless to suggest LSD has overlap with "interesting people."
      - jeremysmyth 12y ago
        On the other hand, every time this topic comes up here or elsewhere, the majority of stories are positive, with a few horror stories (fewer than I'd expect for such an intense experience). 'Survivorship bias' is a misleading term for what you intend to imply, because those who have had a bad LSD experience are no less capable of sharing their intense experience except in the most extreme cases (i.e. when they didn't, in fact, survive). Personally, if I had such an intensely bad experience I'd be quite willing to share it so that others can avoid it. That is just not reflected the balance of stories I read though.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Shamanmuni 12y ago
If you read "What the Dormouse Said" by John Markoff you could reach the conclusion that a fellowship of LSD-fueled Übermenschen existed during the 60's and 70's and we had the personal computer revolution as a result. And no, I'm not talking just about Steve Jobs and Apple, there were many people involved with the nascent computer industry who turned on, tuned in and dropped out at that time.
- Ollinson 12y ago
  Unless you can link other eras of technological advance to LSD use this seems like a poor argument.
  - Shamanmuni 12y ago
    The article mentions Kary Mullis' use of LSD helped him develop the polymerase chain reaction, which revolutionized genetics and for which he won a Nobel Prize. But I suspect from your tone that I could give a thousand examples and you wouldn't change your mind. C'est la vie.
  - samstave 12y ago
    One of the very early Cisco employees stated they made breakthroughs in developing routing tech specificAlly due to lsd.
- pnathan 12y ago
  It's an interesting book. I think the author is too uncritical and not very good at providing the nuances of the ground reality. I do agree with at least a presupposition of the book, which is that the experimental mindset of the time allowed the personal computer industry to come into being. It is absolutely vital to remember that the corporate computer industry (E.g., IBM, DEC, even the LispMs) were (i) alive (ii) vital, and (iii) doing things that were not to be replicated in PCs until the late 90s & early 2000s. So it'd be a bit interesting to consider the counterfactual "what if no Jobs hasn't been the marketer he was? what if Gates hadn't hustled the way he did?"
arvinjoar 12y ago
"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is probably not very conducive to the mainstream conception of "success"... With that said, it's a trip, it can be both rough, frightening and utterly rewarding. I don't think anyone claims that you'll automatically become some demi-God by traveling, but it certainly broadens your horizons.

by xefer 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

b6 12y ago

Hmm. Maintaining your health in the standard ways is really good. Please keep it up. I'll try, too. But it bothers me a little bit when you seem put it as if LSD fails at being some kind of neo-caffeine that makes people smarter, more productive, etc. It really does fail to do that. But that's not how it helps. It's not necessarily that it gives you the answers to the questions you're asking -- it's more like it helps you get perspective and perhaps realize you could be asking better questions. To me it's as if we typically get kind of tunnel vision of the mind. Imagine if, for a few hours, you could zoom out from your current vantage point, see it compressed, as if from a great height, or maybe at high speed, and suddenly it's much easier to see structures that were much too big/subtle/slow to appreciate before. Or you at least get an inkling that such things exist and that you might want to look for them. It's very frustrating to evangelize LSD sometimes because it probably will not help you in the ways you care about right now. But it very well may help you in ways you literally cannot understand right now.

droopyEyelids 12y ago
I'll take a step back even from your more modest assessment, and say that well-rounded people are better at programming (among other things) and an LSD experience can add a bit of roundedness to someone who already pushes their comfort zone-- and thats the real extent of LSD's benefit. Just another way to step outside yourself, with all the limited benefit and risk that entails.

Iv 12y ago

You are unlikely to see them go public while it is forbidden to do so, but the list of people who used LSD includes some pretty interesting people. Personally I run on sleep and quietness, but I think I would be able to put cannabis to good use when it becomes legal where I live. I have found that small quantities allow for a greater concentration on the condition that you refrain smoking to much and not drink any alcohol.

Ollinson 12y ago
>the list of people who used LSD includes some pretty interesting people. This is the definition of survivorship bias.
- Iv 12y ago
  "There have been no documented human deaths from an LSD overdose.[51] It is physiologically well tolerated and there is no evidence for long-lasting physiological effects on the brain or other parts of the human organism.[52]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Potential_adverse_effects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Pote...
  - Ollinson 12y ago
    I think you misunderstand. Survivorship bias in this context means we do not know all of the people who did LSD that did not go on to do anything significant. Therefore it is pointless to suggest LSD has overlap with "interesting people."
    - jeremysmyth 12y ago
      On the other hand, every time this topic comes up here or elsewhere, the majority of stories are positive, with a few horror stories (fewer than I'd expect for such an intense experience). 'Survivorship bias' is a misleading term for what you intend to imply, because those who have had a bad LSD experience are no less capable of sharing their intense experience except in the most extreme cases (i.e. when they didn't, in fact, survive). Personally, if I had such an intensely bad experience I'd be quite willing to share it so that others can avoid it. That is just not reflected the balance of stories I read though.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Shamanmuni 12y ago

If you read "What the Dormouse Said" by John Markoff you could reach the conclusion that a fellowship of LSD-fueled Übermenschen existed during the 60's and 70's and we had the personal computer revolution as a result. And no, I'm not talking just about Steve Jobs and Apple, there were many people involved with the nascent computer industry who turned on, tuned in and dropped out at that time.

Ollinson 12y ago
Unless you can link other eras of technological advance to LSD use this seems like a poor argument.
- Shamanmuni 12y ago
  The article mentions Kary Mullis' use of LSD helped him develop the polymerase chain reaction, which revolutionized genetics and for which he won a Nobel Prize. But I suspect from your tone that I could give a thousand examples and you wouldn't change your mind. C'est la vie.
- samstave 12y ago
  One of the very early Cisco employees stated they made breakthroughs in developing routing tech specificAlly due to lsd.
pnathan 12y ago
It's an interesting book. I think the author is too uncritical and not very good at providing the nuances of the ground reality. I do agree with at least a presupposition of the book, which is that the experimental mindset of the time allowed the personal computer industry to come into being. It is absolutely vital to remember that the corporate computer industry (E.g., IBM, DEC, even the LispMs) were (i) alive (ii) vital, and (iii) doing things that were not to be replicated in PCs until the late 90s & early 2000s. So it'd be a bit interesting to consider the counterfactual "what if no Jobs hasn't been the marketer he was? what if Gates hadn't hustled the way he did?"

arvinjoar 12y ago

"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is probably not very conducive to the mainstream conception of "success"... With that said, it's a trip, it can be both rough, frightening and utterly rewarding. I don't think anyone claims that you'll automatically become some demi-God by traveling, but it certainly broadens your horizons.